494 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



getting enough for that hay. Well, I said, ''Do you want to ship it 

 direct to the market?" And they said, "Yes." I said, "All right, 

 I'll tell you where to ship it;" and then I said to them: "Now you 

 have several grades of hay, and not many of you have had any experi- 

 ence in the grading of that hay, but so far as jou can, order two or 

 three cars, and then when you farmers take that hay to the market 

 or to the station, sort it as nearly as your knowledge will permit, put- 

 ting only one grade in a car;" and those farmers followed out the in- 

 structions given them, and they told me afterward that they received 

 |7. more a ton for that hay than they could have gotten at home. Just 

 last week, at the close of the Institute in Mercer county, a young 

 man came to me at the close of the Institute and said, "Do you re- 

 member telling me about shipping some hay?" I said, "Yes, sir." 

 "Well," he said, "I saved |7. on a single car." Now that is the kind 

 of marketing that touches the farmers' heart. Why, do you know 

 someone has said that "he who makes two blades of grass where but 

 one grew before is a benefactor to mankind." I want to say to you 

 that he who can bring two smiles where none grew before is a greater 

 benefactor, and there is nothing that will make a farmer smile more 

 widely than to give him a good price for what he produces, and he is 

 not so much concerned today about the production of that extra blade 

 of grass as he is as to who will get it after it is produced. That is 

 the big problem in this business. 



Now another illustration to show you what I mean ; some of you 

 are engaged in the growing of potatoes; I know there are some here 

 from counties that produce many thousand of bushels, and the one 

 thing that has kept you out of the best markets has been the fact 

 that the potatoes often have not been thorouglily graded. The pota- 

 toes as they usually come from the ground ought to be graded into 

 three grades, and yet the common practice is, with many farmers, to 

 simply sort out the little ones as they are called, and then put them 

 all in one grade; yet I know of instances over in New York City, 

 where they are paying 10 and 15 cents more a bushel for potatoes of a 

 certain grade than they are paying where they are shipped practically 

 as they come from the ground. 



The question of fruit marketing was touched upon here yesterday. 

 Why, farmers, do you know that it costs 55 cents a bushel to get the 

 apples of the West to our market? Now is it possible that you let 

 some fellow way out on the Avestern coast pay that additional charge 

 and compete with you? You know and I know that you can grow the 

 finest apples in the world right here in Pennsylvania, and what is the 

 difference? Why, just let me call your attention to this; when a 

 man orders a box or 50 boxes or 100 boxes of Spitzenburg apples from 

 the West, he knows that every box will be like the other box ; he does 

 not buy them by inspection, but he buys by reputation; but you let 

 some one come into the market where many of our apples are sold and 

 instead of taking j'our word or the word of the dealer they must see 

 them; and that is not all, they must handle them, and many times 

 handle them until they are bruised and unfit for the market, and that 

 is the method that is being employed in too many instances here in 

 Pennsylvania. Now then we need to have, as has been suggested, and 

 here again comes in your organization — -I would like to see all the 

 different horticultural societies of Pennsylvania just tied up in one 



