PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 303- 



that people advertise from one end to the other of the earth, if they have 

 a good thing. 



Now, I told you perhaps I could not talk without being a little bit per- 

 sonal. We are American citizens, down east. We believe in the national 

 colors; I believe in the flag; I believe every home should have a flag- 

 staff somewhere, and on every national holiday and every birthday in the 

 family, and every other family anniversary (every time pa comes home 

 sober, or anything like that) hang out the American flag. I believe in 

 America, I believe in every farm having a flag. I go around your great 

 city here and find your successful manufacturers of furniture — I do not 

 And them down the side streets, with nothing outside on the buildings. 

 They have paid money to have great advertisements put on the outside 

 of the buildings, to tell who they are and what they are doing there. 

 I believe every farm should have a name, some little, local, poetic affair 

 that connects the family and the home or the surroundings, whatever it 

 may be; but have your farm named, have a little sign out in front with 

 the name of the farm on it. Do not be ashamed to own up who lives 

 there, and have a little advertisement of the specialties of your farm pro- 

 duction; and then you should have it tasteful enough in its surroundings 

 not to be ashamed of it. 



Now, believing in the American flag, I selected for our colors, red, 

 white and blue, [ Mr. Hale here exhibited to the members some labels. ] 

 These labels cost us sixty cents per thousand. We sell them for |500 per 

 thousand, .f 199.40 profit. That is, of course, a Yankee trick, but we 

 do it. How do we do it? By following the methods I have been talking 

 about until we get into the market; and then, when we have the peaches 

 there and have the labels on them, we get about fifty cents more with 

 that red label on than the other fellow does who does not believe in this 

 label and our other methods. All the extra-size fruit, if it is perfect in 

 every way, gets this label, which is a little advertisement of the fruit 

 and a guarantee of it. The leading thing in it is " Hale's Peaches." 

 If they are poor, he will bring them back; if they are good he will come 

 again. I make him pay for them — it is my business to see that they 

 are good. We guarantee that that basket is perfect from top to bottom, 

 that there is not an inferior peach in it. 



On the next grade we put the white label, a lower grade but a perfect 

 peach in every way, but they are graded according to size, and are perfect 

 specimens, the only difference being in size. By growing the best we 

 know how, in best seasons, we get more than fifty per cent, of the extras, 

 and perhaps thirty per cent, of the No. I's. Now, those large peaches, if 

 they are away off color, or are a little out of shape, go in as large culls, 

 and we sell them without any label at all. We do not care to have 

 it known whose they were or where they came from. If asked, we would 

 guarantee there was not a perfect peach in the basket, and yet we get 

 almost as much for them as though we had mixed the good and bad 

 together. In our southern orchard we use one label, the red, entirely. 

 We ship from the south only the very choicest fruit. 



I am making this personal, so that you can see what I am doing myself 

 and what I believe others will come to. We go to certain markets which 

 we reach in Connecticut, and instead of shipping to Boston or New York 

 to some commission man and letting him sell it at the first place he can, 



