SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 5 



trees, and currants in the gardens of our village and subur- 

 ban sections. These trees at present represent a large part 

 of our crop of early and fall varieties of apples and pears and 

 have for years furnished their owners and their neighbors 

 with their early and fall fruit. If these trees go, it will make 

 a larger market for the orchardist for varieties that have for- 

 merly been unprofitable and planted chiefly by the amateur. 

 I believe there was never a better time to plant early varieties 

 of apples and pears and currants. 



The problem of the scale and the old apple tree is a big 

 one, and before it is solved I fear many of our old veterans 

 will have surrendered. 



The last legislature was favorable to our interests and 

 gave us most of the legislattion that the fruit growlers asked. 



It is a strange fact that men need to be compelled to use 

 business methods that will insure their own interests. On 

 our program is a subject for discussion concerning legislation 

 requiring more uniform methods of packing and grading fruit 

 for shipment. If all packers were reasonably honest in their 

 business dealings there would be no need of such legislation. 

 This is not a call for protection from the victims of sharp 

 practices. It is the call of the producer and dealer to pass 

 laws that will inspire confidence in the consumer that the 

 package contains what it is said to contain. It is a call for 

 every man to remember that the old proverb, "Honesty is the 

 best policy."' is not simply a sentimental saying, but that it is 

 a fundamental law of all business. When the business man, 

 in whatever walk of life, forgets this, he sacrifices that most 

 important of all elements to success, public confidence. Our 

 largest business men, leading public officials and greatest 

 financiers are having this hammered home to them with tre- 

 mendous force at the present time. Everywhere is the call 

 for laws to enforce that ordinar}^ business honesty that it is in 

 the interests of the business men themselves to observe. And 

 so we are about to discuss laws that will compel the shrewd 

 Yankee fruit grower to pack his fruit and mark it in a man- 

 ner we would expect ordinary horse sense would lead liim to 



