88 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



when we must cease temporizing with evil. "Ye cannot serve God and 

 Mammon." Tt is applicable in more ways than one. A house divided 

 against itself must fall. If fifty per cent of the people pack junk, it 

 injures the other fifty per cent. They must be rooted out. You up-to- 

 date growers with large investments and the business at heart owe it 

 to yourselves. 



Apples are not worth a dollar merely hanging on the trees. Their 

 only value lies in the ability to change them into real money. And 

 this change in its last analysis comes from the consumer. Our supreme 

 thought and care therefore ought to be to please him. From the times 

 these apples are in blossom until they are packed, and especially while 

 being packed, we ought constantly to have him in mind. We ought 

 to put ourselves in his place every packing season and if we did, there 

 would be no further trouble. Instead, however, of doing this, our 

 sole thought has been to unload just as much "junk" as possible as 

 someone else — to pass it along and take the chance. It is a mystery 

 to me that apples sell as well as they do. 



Now you may want to know what can be done to remedy conditions. 

 It is easy to criticise and find fault, but to build up and create, that is 

 the great work — it is a man's job. You have the remedy at hand in 

 the Sulzer Bill, to the passage of which your secretary, Prof. Eustace, 

 the Congressman of Michigan and others in this commonwealth lent 

 their assistance, and that help was greatly appreciated. You have the 

 standard of a Government of the United States at your hand and you 

 have the right to brand on your packages the index of its approval. 

 That brand tells to the world at large that there is an honest pack and 

 a square deal underneath it from the face clear through to the cushion. 

 It says there are no turnips and pumpkins and leaves and stones in 

 the center. It proclaims positively that there are no cider apples, no 

 worms, diseased or windfall fruit in the middle of that package. It 

 looks the world in the face like a man. and says, "I deliver the goods; 

 try me and prove me." What more can be asked? 



I regard this bill as coming at the psychological moment, at the 

 beginning of a crisis in the apple industry. We are at the parting of 

 the ways. By following the old lines and refusing to make the change 

 which common sense and experience have taught to be wise we will 

 court something of the same depression which followed the industry in 

 the eighties and nineties. By making the change and establishing our- 

 selves upon the right basis, we may reasonably hope to standardize 

 it and make its production staple is to increase its consumption, de- 

 crease the risk and cost of handling and form a proper basis for ad- 

 vertising. 



Now just a word on these points. The retailer and wholesaler today 

 who handle apples buy them in the dark, so to speak. On Monday 

 they may prove to be good, on Tuesday fair and all the rest of the 

 week very poor. The waste in many instances from decayed windfalls 

 in the center of barrels, cider apples and diseased stock is great. The 

 business is a gamble — worse than poker in its uncertainty — because the 

 bluff won't work with the consumer on any occasion. The retailer, 

 therefore, is forced to put his selling price high enough to protect 

 him against any emergency and keep it there. Do away with this un- 



