46 The Connecticut Pomological Society 



building up a connecting link between you, the growers, and 

 those who distribute and sell your products. 



"He (the distributor and seller), if he does his duty to your 

 shipments, has little time to write to you all, but I can catch 

 him sitting on an apple barrel, taking his after luncheon cigar, 

 and I can find out his likes and dislikes, his theories and plans, 

 his demands and his restrictions, and once a week I can take 

 his words as a text and preach to you through the mails. 



"1 know that in attempting to get you together in this 

 way, for an exchange of ideas each week, I have taken a large 

 contract, a contract which is beset by so many difficulties that 

 at times I am reminded by my limitations of a story which I 

 know you will pardon, because its moral points so directly at 

 me and illustrates how thoroughly I realize how much I have 

 to learn. Two pomological gentlemen were walking over a 

 fruit farm one day, and through the farm ran a railroad. As 

 they came to a crossing, they saw a young bull, with his head 

 lowered, pawing the earth and bellowing and making all the 

 necessary preparations to butt the approaching express train off 

 the track. One of the gentlemen said to the other: ' Now, 

 what do you think of that?' The other gentleman replied: 

 'Well, I admire his pluck, but damn his judgment.' 



"I think, however, that I have one advantage over the 

 bull. The express trains with which I come in contact occa- 

 sionally slow up and take me on board, as 3'ou have done at 

 this meeting. 



"Just what the function of a trade paper should be is a 

 problem, and the trouble is that any man who even half way 

 solves that problem retires from business, owns his own auto- 

 mobile and leaves the solution to his successors. But in the 

 struggle to solve that problem, there are countless benefits to 

 be derived by the man with the hoe. 



"When your receiver writes that your car-load of peaches 

 or apples or berries went straight to the dumps and that the 

 charges are seventeen dollars more than he could even dream 

 of getting for them, a feeling of unrest steals over you and you 

 hunger for a few more details than are given you in the receiver's 

 typewritten letter. There is where your trade paper comes in 

 with its weather reports, trade conditions and record of sales. 



