QUALITY AND THE MARKET 



EDUCATE THE TASTE — WHET THE APPETITE 

 BY GIVING HIGHEST QUALITY — PRODUCT- 

 IVENESS SECONDARY— FROM AN ADDRESS 

 BEFORE AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY 



BY 



CHAS. W. GARFIELD 



GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. 



A GREAT deal of friction can be 

 avoided in this world by not at- 

 tempting to bring- all individuals 

 with their varied likes and dislikes to the 

 same standard or the same level. The 

 bending of ways to suit the individual pe- 

 culiarities and personal likings is distinctly 

 in the interest of harmonious intercourse 

 and friendly relationships. When it comes 

 to matters of taste, there is no hard and fast 

 rule with regard to excellence. Two people 

 of equally good sense and wise discrimina- 

 tion and valuable experience may differ 

 widely in their views with regard to the 

 comparative quality of viands and each may 

 be perfectly right. This is specially true 

 when it comes to passing upon the merits 

 of the different varieties of different fruits. 

 A college president of wide travel and 

 broad culture, who had tasted of the fruits 

 of many countries, declared his opinion that 

 a well ripened Concord suited his palate 

 better than any other grape grown. A con- 

 noisseur and an old-time member of this so- 

 ciety, when this fact was confided to him, 

 laughed outright and said, "he never had 

 tasted a perfect lona. It will change his 

 mind." Later in the same season our pomo- 

 logical friend sent to the college executive a 

 basket of the best Concords and the best 

 lonas he could find, and to his great aston- 

 ishment, the courteous letter of gratitude, 

 which was sent in response, still insisted 

 that the Concord was the better. He may 



have been right in spite of all the records of 

 the American Pomological Society for aught 

 I know, and I am not sure but the rank and 

 file of people who eat grapes would support 

 him in his opinion. It is the province of 

 the commercial fruit grower not to antago- 

 nize individual tastes, but rather to cater 

 to them in the greatest possible detail 

 and make the purchaser pay well for the 

 gratification of his peculiar tastes. The 

 fruit grower who is in the business for 

 money ought to be willing — for a proper 

 consideration — to humor these peculiarities. 



It is in catering to this variety of taste 

 and the difference in judgment concerning 

 the quality of fruits that we find the stimu- 

 lus for the originator of new and valuable 

 varieties. The growers of fruits are very 

 few in number compared with the con- 

 sumers, and there is no reason why a single 

 grower should not in the management of 

 his business cater to the tastes of a consid- 

 erable range of consumers. The fact that 

 there are so many variations in taste and 

 people are so willing to make sacrifices 

 and even pay roundly to suit their likings, 

 is to my mind sufficient reason for putting 

 together in juxtaposition the two prominent 

 words in my talk. 



When an originator of fruits heralds with 

 considerable blandishment a new candidate 

 for popular favor, saying, "The tree is a 

 fine grower, hardy in twig and bud, the 

 fruit is of fine color, firm texture, fair quali- 



