No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 633 



him. At any rate, you would make yourself very sure as to what 

 you were getting. Now, to turn to the fruit question. You may 

 be just as sure that the buyer is not going to take a risk as to what 

 he is purchasing. Particularly when the reputation of growers is 

 no higher than it is. Mr. W. H. Underwood, an exceedingly ex- 

 tensive orchardist in Kansas, puts it this way: 



"We have got over believing that all the stuff we sell goes to 



' suckers, in fact, we give the buyer the benefit of being just as bright 



as we are, and we haven't yet found a buyer who will not look in the 



centre of the package if he is going to invest |5,000 to |20,000 of 



his own money." 



Another fruit man states it thus: "The age of the wooden 

 nutmeg is past. We must give value and stand behind it." These 

 remarks come from actual and thoroughly successful growers. Now, 

 to return to the shirts. Suppose upon lifting the first garment, 

 you found that the others were of a much lower grade and dis- 

 tinctly inferior in quality and woikmanship. What would you do? 

 The chances are you would be outside the door in ten seconds 

 and you go to another store where you hope another attempt to 

 swindle you will not be made. Is not this just exactly what the 

 fruit dealers have done? As evidence, witness the following clipping: 



"DEALEKS HANDLE WESTEEN APPLES 



Complaint of Dishonest Packing in the East 



OEDINANCE IS SUGGESTED 



City law to go with proposed federal statute compelling honest 

 packing urged. Cold storage full of eastern fruit." 



With thousands of barrels of eastern apples in cold storage, the 

 big retail dealers in Eochester are handling western fruit, if not 

 exclusively, then nearly so. They have frankly admitted that this 

 is true, and they are not backward in saying why it seems likely to 

 remain true. 



Men thoroughly in touch with the situation say that an honest 

 barrel of apples from New York packers is rare. There are honest 

 packers, of course, but the}^ are in the minority. Barrels that look 

 faultless in the facing show up anything but faultless in the mid- 

 dle, say retail dealers. No. 2 quality is allowed to partially fill No. 

 1 barrels. Disgust over this condition has grown so great that many 

 dealers along the main thoroughfares of this city will not buy a 

 barrel of fruit grown in New York as long as the western apples 

 can be purchased, notwithstanding that the price of western fruit 

 is considerably higher. 



