154 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



settled principles of successful business, and " Honesty is the best policy " 

 is as true as it is trite. If it is the best policy in mercantile business, it 

 is true in all branches that contribute to business. As fruitgrowers you 

 must be honest with your land. You can not rob it with impunity, and 

 with your trees you must pursue the same course. In all your transactions 

 with nature, any departure from that rule will be punished. Reflect for a 

 a moment, and you can readily call up in your experience instances where 

 the punishment was sure if not swift. 



So, too, after your trees have bloomed, and your efforts, aided by the 

 sunshine and the rain, have produced a crop, the same inexorable law must 

 be obeyed. Strict integrity and honesty in the handling (for 'tis dishonest 

 to bruise and damage by careless or reckless methods the fruit you have 

 produced) and packing of fruit should be observed. Let your package be 

 of standard size — your customers demand it. Let it be of approved style 

 — that the purchaser requires, and honesty to your interest demands it. 

 Let it be of good quality — self-interest says it is economy. 



In packing, let the contents be honest, and just what you represent 

 them to be. If No. 1, let it be No. 1 all through. If of inferior grade, so 

 indicate it on the package. 



It's a great temptation, when away a hundred miles from the purchaser, 

 in the seclusion of your orchard or vineyard, to use the No. 1 stencil on 

 No. 2 goods. It may seem as though you would be safe from detection, 

 and no one will know the difference, but is it honest? Yoii will know it, 

 and your trade-mark, your reputation, will suffer, and your credit in the 

 country markets will be gone. Credit is of slow growth, and easily 

 destroyed. 



Two years ago, one section of Michigan had an enviable record in the 

 quality of grapes shipped to Chicago. One year ago, the tampering with 

 grapes was marked, and this year no one cared to purchase on the "mark." 

 Personal inspection alone was relied upon by buyers, Now, who lost by 

 the tampering with the trade-mark? 



Another section that had a high standard, lowered it considerably this 

 year by packing inferior stock of grapes for No. 1. 



Men of Michigan, it is worthy of your careful consideration, this honest, 

 manly packing of fruit. 



" Western Michigan apples," for years was a by-word among the fruit 

 dealers of this city, so notorious had been the violation of the common 

 rules of honesty in packages and packing, although I am glad to note 

 improvement in that line. 



True, the apple crop was almost a failure, and the fruit inferior, and 

 what was shipped the best to be had, yet I am sure the damage to the fair 

 name of the western fruit belt in the aggregate was immense. 



It is well to note that New York is a strong competitor, and by strict 

 methods she holds up her grading, so that it is now perfectly safe to buy 

 New York grapes without seeing them. All that is necessary is to have 

 the "standard" mark on the packages. 



The almost universal use of the Climax basket makes comment on the 

 package for grapes unnecessary. 



I trust I may be understood in what I have said. Were I to put it in 

 one sentence, it would be, "'Do unto others as you would be done by, for 

 your sin will find you, as surely as honesty is the best policy." 



