304 STATE HORTICULTURAL S()CIETY. ■ 



I went to these markets and hunted out retail dealers in fancy fruit 

 and tried to show them what I was doing in the way of growing fruit, and 

 how good it was; and in the small towns I said to them, " I want some 

 one man to be my agent here; I will advertise the fruit, I will put it up 

 well, and if you will handle it, why, I can make some money for both of 

 us." We got up little circulars which advertised the peaches, and if the 

 dealer gives us the names of his best customers we mail them direct, 

 showing that the dealer is going to be headquarters for our fruit. If it is 

 a larger town, and we put the business in the hands of a jobber, we ask 

 him to give us the names of the fancy grocers and of the people he deals 

 with. Now, just before the opening of the peach season last year, we 

 mailed these circulars to every retail dealer in fancy fruits, etc., in the 

 city of New York and in the New England states, and in the distributing 

 territory of Philadelphia and Newark. We mailed them to the stewards 

 of every hotel and every club house and all those that were likely to 

 buy good fruit, three or four weeks before the season opened; and just 

 as the season opened we mailed them again to all those people, with 

 another announcement that the peaches were now on the way to market 

 and could be found in the hands of our agents. Then we have one man, 

 an agent, at each center, and we tell him that he must come to the 

 orchard and see how the thing is done. You know you can not do business 

 without understanding one another. This idea that the commission 

 man or the dealer is, somehow or other, trying to get the best of you, that 

 there is a separate interest between you and him, is all wrong. Y''ou are 

 all partners and all working together, for you must get right in sympathy 

 with tJie dealer, with the jobber, or you would better get out of the 

 business altogether. I brought them up to the orchard, and I said, " Gen- 

 tlemen, come to the orchard and see what we have and see how we do 

 it." I have taken them around among the trees and explained the 

 method of culture, the method of handling, and how we judge when they 

 are ripe; have taken them to the packing-sheds and shown them how the 

 work is done there, and taken them on the cars, and all the way through, 

 and when the peaches get into the market, and the dealer comes up to 

 them to buy, the agents know what they are talking about; they have 

 faith in the fruit and the buyers must have faith — and then make them 

 pay for it, and they are willing to do it. We distributed some 200,000 of 

 these circulars, and here is a fac simile of the label telling them if they 

 found fruit bearing that label they would know it was all right. 



This, in a crude way, is something of the methods of handling. Y''ou 

 can not afford to spend year in and year out in growing fine fruit and 

 then fail of getting the last ten cents, or twenty-five, or fifty on top, 

 because your consumers do not know what you are doing. They think 

 your fruit is like all the other they have been buying — good on top and 

 inferior on the bottom. Y'ou can not afford to have them possessed of 

 that idea. 



After doing all these things, you must reach the people in some way 

 and let them know what you have; and do not forget at any time to make 

 them pay for it — the more you make them pay, the better they like it, 

 providing the fruit is good. 



The past summer I talked with the railway people, with the presidents 

 of the roads that lead to the south where I go, and I invited them to the 



