80 



benefit to the fruit trade, then the thing for you to do is to 

 back it right up to the limit. 



Remember that as long as the law is in force every 

 barrel which you pack which does not conform to the law 

 liurts the rei)utation of ^lassachusetts as a fruit growing 

 state and hurts indirectly every other fruit grower in Mas- 

 sachusetts, because of course if buyers find that the words 

 "Massachusetts Standard" don't mean anything they are 

 going to fight shy of !i\Iassachusetts fruit. 



Every barrel which you pack which does conform to the 

 law adds to your reputation as a fruit grower and indirectly 

 helps the reputation of every other fruit grower in Massa- 

 chusetts, and the way in my opinion for the fruit growers to 

 conform to this laAV is not to see how many apples below 

 grade they can get by in the A grade, but to see just how 

 good a barrel of A grade apples they can put up. Of course 

 the first way of conforming will get you by, ])ut it will not 

 l.uikl up a very desirable reputation for >-ou as a fruit 

 grower or for ]\Iassachusetts as a fruit growing State. 



I don't want you to think from what T have said that we 

 have not appreciated* the support Ave have had this year 

 from the growers and dealers and everybody connected with 

 the fruit trade, because we have. If the law has had any 

 success this year, and some people say it has, the credit is 

 yours l)ecause you packed most of the apples. A great 

 Majority of the fruit growers of the state have given the 

 law very good support. If they had not the law would not 

 luiA'c had the slightest success. 



Of course there have been some criticisms of the law, 

 but not nearly so many as we expected. Some professional 

 critics attributed all their ills to the law. The fact that their 

 apples were poor — that they got a poor price — was all laid 

 on the law. This law has limitations, of course ; it is not 

 going to br-ing about any raillenium in the apple growing 

 l)usiness. The millenium will never come by legislation. 

 This law will raise no apples ; it Avill not change bad apples 

 into good apples and it will not change poor packers into 



