118 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ment in regard to organization, from the fact that what might have 

 been last year or ten years ago, or even yesterday, are matters of his- 

 tory. We have new conditions confronting ns, and new ideas to work 

 out, and we are better prepared to take up these matters now than wo 

 have ever been before. I do not think any one in this room would 

 hesitate to say that the greatest problem before us is the one of mar- 

 keting our fruit. I think that we should follow the best business 

 methods, — the ones followed by other business organizations, in solv- 

 ing this question. The International Harvester Co., for instance, which 

 is the consolidation of a number of like concerns, did not evolve all 

 of its ideas from itself, but drew from all sources for its information, 

 largely from its salesmen. They are on the ground, they know what 

 they have to meet, and they know how to meet it, and these people 

 have taken up with their suggestions and have found them to be the 

 ones that are winners. So in making a market for ourselves, I am 

 constrained to say that we have not followed these business methods as 

 we should ; we have lacked confidence in one another ; we have been 

 afraid that advantage was being taken of us, and have been unwilling 

 to give our confidence to the work as we should. It is for this reason, 

 I believe, that we have not had as good prices for the straight honestly 

 put up fruit in proportion as we should have had. But it still re- 

 mains a fact that there is altogether too much poor fruit packed. T 

 asked Rose what effect of so much poor fruit being shipped had upon 

 his business, whether under the system of marketing known as coopera- 

 tion or through his own market, and he said it was considerable. He 

 has had to meet and work out these questions himself. So has Mr. 

 Friday, Mr. Hutchins, and others. These conditions do exist, and they 

 are working against us. 



The one thing for us to do is to talk up this matter, create a senti- 

 ment and put up a good pack. Convince the people of the fact that 

 we have good fruit and they will be willing to pay for it, a thing they 

 will not do under the present condition of -things. I question whether 

 it is possible for a man to establish a reputation of his own on what 

 fruit he can handle alone with anything near the profit or benefit to be 

 derived from such marketing, if the whole people were to help make 

 a good market and cut out the unnecessary expense that we are up 

 against continually as small individuals. 



Then there is another proposition that we are up against, — we may 

 be able to raise good fruit, but we are not all good salesmen; We 

 are not all of us able with the means we have at hand, and the amount 

 of fruit we have to ship, in an economical way, to meet these prices 

 like people who have a larger amount. So I think today the greatest 

 problem we have before us, the one that we should make the most note 

 of, the one that would come home to each one of us, is the question of 

 marketing our fruit better than we have ever done before. There are 

 enough of them that do not come here that are careless in their methods 

 so that we have got the reputation that really makes us Michigan 

 fruit growers blush. Here is a man who comes to us (Mr. Phillips) who 

 s-iys that we are packing junk. He is not the first one who has said 

 that, for we have heard it for years and years. We have resolved to 

 do different, and I think that many are honestly trying to do different, 



