FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 89 



certainty, give him a standard pack — a staple product — and he can 

 afford to handle it on a small margin because he knows that he can de- 

 pend upon the reliability of the commodity. 



Now as to advertising: There is nothing to be gained unless we have 

 something to advertise, and that something must be capable of identi- 

 fication and must be an honest commodity. Imagine advertising the 

 heterogeneous mass of apples that go onto our markets today! In- 

 duced by a glowing word picture of the health giving properties of the 

 apple, or lured by the rosy red on the cheek of a lithographed Bald- 

 win, some poor consumer buys a barrel only to find that it has three 

 layers on the face and two on the tail that are good, while the rest 

 run in size from marbles to butternuts ; in color from a green gage plum 

 to a sick lemon, and in health to prickly heat to smallpox. The com- 

 modity which you advertise must square with your promises, and when 

 it does, there is no greater power under the sun. Advertising has chang- 

 ed the map of commerce. It has established financial empires and 

 crowned "Captains of Industry." It has created demand along a thou- 

 sand lines and stimulated industry the world around. 



In the Sulzer Bill we have every requirement necessary to a scientific 

 advertising campaign. In the Standard Grade we have something defi- 

 nite and capable of identification. No man can be misled. It is a 

 specific brand and when he buys a barrel with that brand upon it, he 

 knows that he will get what he buys. Standard Grades can be ad- 

 vertised in good faith with the full assurance that they will make good 

 no matter where they are bought, from one end of the country to the 

 other. And, gentlemen, we hope they are going to be advertised. By 

 another year plans will be perfected for undertaking this work. A 

 committee of our Association is now at work upon this very question 

 and we hope that when that plan is ready every member of the Mich- 

 igan Horticultural Society who believes in a better pack and who is 

 willing to use the Sulzer Bill will give it his financial support. You 

 have the greatest power and the most favorable circumstances ever 

 granted to an agricultural product. Think of it — a Standard Grade 

 where apples established by the United States Government and on which 

 can rest that powerful lever, publicity! Are we blind? Has reason 

 departed? Are we but little children? Is common sense no more? 

 Can we do nothing but complain when the door of opportunity stands 

 wide open before us? Give me the power and I would pack every bar 

 rel under the Sulzer Bill; I would advertise those grades and I would 

 guarantee to double consumption at a fair price. The square deal plus 

 publicity are the keystones to our arch of success, and without them 

 you can do nothing. 



The man who persists in refusing to use Standard Grades is like a 

 man going to war without a gun. He isn't going to a battle, he is 

 going to a funeral. Make no mistake about it. Canada, under her 

 Fruit and Marks Act, outstripping us in foreign markets and the North- 

 west has cut off our fancy trade because or her packing. These are not 

 idle dreams. It is time to wake up, to do something, to act. Let 

 me read you the export figures and what our foreign Consuls say. 



Taken in five-year periods in 1882 to 1907, the exports from the United 

 States exceeded those from Canada all the way from 16% to 300%, 



