FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 93 



of berry growers who are Germans, and they will put in any old thing 

 in the box. You can not get them under the Sulzer law. I have ad- 

 vocated that we should have a law by which every man puts his name 

 on every package sent out. I know of a case where a shipment of 

 sixty barrels of pears went to Milwaukee, and when they were opened 

 up, the middle was filled with apples. There are those who are in- 

 tentionally dishonest, as in this case, and we want a law to reach them. 

 Most men are honest, if made so, either through the fear of God or 

 through fear of the law. We must come to some definite understanding 

 in this matter, and if possible provide for something more stringent than 

 this Sulzer Law. 



The Chairman — I think there should be some time set for the discus- 

 sion of this question, when we have more time at our command than 

 we have now. 



Chairman — This discussion will be led by Mr. Hutchins. 



Mr. Hutchins — I will not say much. We have had an excellent ad- 

 dress and many valuable and interesting points have been brought out. 

 I may say, however, that I have felt that I would like to go into the 

 detective business and if possible learn where those fellows are that 

 are doing this dishonest work, but Mr. Sinythe has given us a tip. 

 But I am a little apprehensive, from what I hear, that if we should 

 catch them and presume to give them their just deserts, it might in- 

 crease our taxes to an alarming extent, and fill up our public hotels. 

 But it is not the people around our section — they are farmers, and they 

 assert that they put their apples up right — it can not be any of those— 

 it must be some of the growers around here. (Laughter.) If I should 

 blame it on to Mr. Wilde, we might get into a scrap — we don't want 

 that, so I will not carry the matter any further. 



But seriously, gentlemen, we want a law that will enable us to be 

 honest, and (hen gain credit for it. Under the operations of this Sulzer 

 law, we can not do that. If a consumer gets one barrel that is bad, he 

 is afraid of the next fifty. 



You will be interested I think, in what we are doing, and will bear 

 with me for a few moments. And by the way, there is one feature of the 

 fruit growers, we do not have any trade secrets, so in lieu of any ad- 

 vertising you may accuse me of doing, I will take the ground that I am 

 giving away trade secrets. 



We have an apple organization in our parts, and there are 100 mem- 

 bers. The apples are turned over to the Fruit Growers Exchange, with 

 no string tied to them, and the Exchange controls them just as much as 

 the commission men control the fruit sent them. When a sale is made, 

 5% is deducted to cover the cost to the Association. We put a packer 

 in every orchard, and he oversees the sorting, packing and putting this 

 fruit into the barrel, and the fruit is put up under the provisions of 

 the Sulzer law. You will be interested in knowing how that fruit turns 

 out. There is a good deal of blight or scab — none of this must go into 

 this Sulzer grade. There are grades of apples there where the growers 

 are putting them up, and perhaps 90% of them will go into a glowers' 

 grade, perhaps a commercial grade. The peculiar feature of that situa- 

 tion is that the buyers will go to these raisers outside of the exchange 

 and will pay them as much, or perhaps more for the orchard run of 



