COMMISSIONEE OF AGRICULTURE 225 



who were already connected with the Department. Additional or 

 experienced apple men could not be employed, but, by interfering 

 with other lines of work to quite a serious extent, we were enabled 

 to accomplish something during the year. The history of the 

 whole problem has been set forth in the following address made by 

 Commissioner Wilson before the New York State Fruit Growers' 

 Association. 



THE NEW YORK STATE PACKING AND GRADING LAW 



CHARLES 8. WILSON, Commissioner of Agriculture 



It seems apropos for the members of the New York State Fruit Growers' 

 Association to give some consideration to the Apple Packing and Grading 

 Law, a regulation which affects every New Yorker who packs a barrel of 

 apples for sale and those growing. I wish I were able to penetrate the inner 

 thoughts of all of you at this time, that I might know how you feel towards 

 the law, towards the Department of Agriculture, and perhaps, towards the 

 Commissioner himself. But whatever your feelings may be or may have been 

 in this respect, I want to say, first of all, that the attitude of the Department 

 towards the fruit growers has been one of fairness and helpfulness, under the 

 statute as a guide, and yet firmness. 



The law, in its present form, took effect the first of last July. All of you 

 are familiar with the law of the previous year, which is, in principle and 

 essentials, the same as our present law. As soon as the bill was signed by 

 the Governor, the Department of Agriculture issued a circular, known as 

 Circular 118, for the information of fruit growers, dealers, and purchasers. 

 Copies of this circular have been passed around. A season's experience with 

 the enforcement of the law indicates that all of the regulations are not 

 thoroughly understood, and I wish to call your attention, in particular, to 

 the interpretation of the color requirement, as made on page 6 of this circular. 

 I wish also to call your attention to the essentials for the brand, as they 

 are explained on page 8 of the circular. 



As the law was a new one, the Department felt that it was its duty, so 

 far as possible, to bring its provisions before the fruit growers and packers. 

 Several thousand copies of Circular 118 were printed and distributed. A 

 copy was sent to everyone with whom the Department had corresponded the 

 previous year on this subject; second, to the Farm Bureau agents; third, to 

 the New York State Fruit Growers' Association and the Western New York 

 Horticultural Society; fourth, to the commission men, who distributed them 

 to the producer; and finally, in order that nearly every fruit man might have 

 the opportunity of knowing about the law, the Department, in co-operation 

 with the New York Central Railway, ran a demonstration train, on the New 

 York Central lines, through the Hudson Valley and the central and north- 

 western parts of the state. The train made forty different stops and reached, 

 on an average, one hundred men at every stop, making a total of 4,000 men 

 reached. 



An educational plan of disseminating information in regard to the agri- 

 cultural law, similar to such as was practiced in the case of the Apple Pack- 

 8 



