FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. 67 



mean that if the market goes up the canners are not going; to get the 

 fruit. We know the faults of the canner and we know the faults of the 

 fruit growers, and it is about 50-50. We are business men and when we 

 make a contract we must live up to it. And a man who doos not live 

 up to it is going to eliminate himself before long. 



In case anything should happen so they could not can the fruit il 

 would have to be returned and sold by organizatioiis through th(; ordi- 

 nary channels of trade. The interests of the canner and fruit growers 

 are identical and that is the buyer and seller. If fruit growing is not 

 profitable you quit it and then what hapj^ens? If canning is not profit- 

 able then you don't have that channel to get lid of your fruit. The 

 price this fruit is going to be taken at can be arranged at the time the 

 trade is made or it can be arranged on a 50-50 basis that you will take 

 the selling price, less the cost and a fair overhead. That broadens your 

 field in a good manj' ways. You must realize that canning is not done 

 like it used to be and never will be again. The housewife can buy fruit 

 already canned cheaper than she can can it herself and it is as good and 

 sometimes Ijetter. You have not got as large a market in proportion 

 as you used to have in the large cities but the market for canning goes 

 on unlimited. 



A campaign for advertising should be maintained for canned goods 

 and pushed to the limit. In figuring in the cost of selling that fruit it 

 will be legitimate to figure in the cost of advertising, in case you should 

 dissolve partnership on this proposition with the canner. If we adver- 

 tise and push the sale of canned goods the way a patent medicine concern 

 would push, we haven't enough canners to put out fruit to meet the 

 demand. 



All restaurants offer you canned fruit and it is very attractive. 



Why shouldn't we as fruit growing people follow our fruit from the 

 time we raise it until the ultimate consumer pays for it. We want that 

 consumer to be satisfied because when he is satisfied he is a buyer of our 

 products every year. 



This committee of twenty-one is going to try and solve some of these 

 problems. The problem is so big that we do not know when it is going 

 to be solved. 



I have tried to tell you in a very rambling way of what we talked of 

 and what we saw the future might bring to us. 



We want you people in Michigan especially to consider the following: 

 That is the trucking proposition. It may be a great benefit to you and 

 it may be a great danger. Where a man is hauling his own fruit in 

 truck and expects to do so year after year he is careful to give good goods 

 and only good goods to the customers he expects to sell to today, to- 

 morrow and next year. But the average truck buys fruit in an old 

 orchard. That man is giving the fruit of your neighborhood a black eye. 

 When the person who buys the fruit finds that he has a package that 

 looked good but was not good he does not want any more Michigan fruit. 

 We cannot control these truckmen unless we control them through 

 organizations. If he buys a lot of stuff that is poor and takes it to 

 Kalamazoo and sells it they ask him where he got it. If he says South 

 Haven — next time they see South Haven fruit they are prejudiced 

 against that fruit. 



