4 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
September, 1916 
Advantages of Legislative 
control of apple grading 
and packing standards. 
Sherwood W. Shear, 
University of Wisconsin, 
January 3, 1916. 
I am here to-day to advocate a 
a national law compelling all 
growers and packers of apples 
in closed packages, such as the 
barrel and the box, to grade, 
pack, and mark their apples in 
accord with a standard estab- 
lished by such a law. Such a 
law should be similar in principle 
to those laws which have worked 
successfully on a small scale 
in 10 of our states, namely, 
California, Colorado, Utah, Ore- 
gon, Washington, Montana, 
Idaho, Maine, Vermont, and 
New York; and similar to that 
law which has proved so success- 
ful on a large scale in the 
Dominion of Canada since 1901, 
a period of almost 15 years. 
These states and Canada have 
proved that effective and useful 
laws can be made which will 
in no way injure honest com- 
mercial apple growers, but will 
benefit not only the growers, 
but the apple dealers and the 
consumers of apples. 
An effective national law 
would be similar to that of 
Canada but, of course, would 
apply only to apples for inter- 
state and foreign shipment. The 
Canadian Fruit Inspection law 
requires that all growers and 
packers of apples who use closed 
packages, such as the barrel 
and the box, must mark each 
package plainly with the name 
and postoflice address of the 
owner at the time of packing, 
and with the variety of fruit 
and its grade as it should be 
classified according to the stand- 
ard grades (usually 3 in number) 
as defined in the law. These 
standards, as defined in the 
Canadian law, are such that the 
standard of apples packed in 
Canada is very high, and yet 
not so high that the growers 
have objected to the stringency 
of the law. 
You are without doubt inter- 
ested in knowing how such a 
law has helped the growers, in 
order that you may judge of 
the benefits which a national 
law would be to the apple 
growers of the United States in 
general, and to the Wisconsin 
apple growers in particular. 
Wherever operated these laws 
have benefited the growers in 
several important ways. The 
fact that the profits and sales 
of the apple growers have in- 
creased will be of the greatest 
interest to you. The growers 
have also learned by the help 
of the fruit inspectors to raise 
and pack better fruit at less cost 
than previously. Growers have 
been forced to cooperate for 
more efficient management in 
packing and selling. Such a law 
helps to eliminate consignments 
to commission men and hence 
tends to eliminate the glutting 
of markets, and increases the 
sale of apples at F. 0. B. or 
delivered prices. Growers have 
also been enabled to increase 
storage facilities for their fruit, 
and also to secure more credit 
on better terms than they had 
ever done before. The majority 
of commercial apple growers, 
wherever an apple grading law 
has been enforced, have ex- 
pressed themselves as heartily 
in favor of it and have attested 
its good results. 
I have the time only to prove 
to you briefly how the sales and 
profits of growers have been 
increased by such a law. 
The Fruit Commissioner of 
Canada writes that before the 
apple grading law was passed 
that “the quantity of fruit which 
was dishonestly and poorly 
packed was sufficient to stamp 
the whole (Canadian) apple in- 
dustry as unreliable, to the 
detriment of the honest grower 
and dealer.” 
You all know that all good 
business is permanent and based 
on confidence existing between 
the buyer and the seller. Con- 
fidence is built on reputation. 
The reputation of the growers 
of your country or section of 
country depends upon the kind 
of apples you deliver to buyers. 
The better the reputation of 
your apples the easier it is to 
sell the fruit and the easier it 
is to get better prices for it. 
The big apple dealers who are 
honest and pay the best prices 
for fruit, demand that they 
know, not guess, the quality of 
the fruit which they buy, in 
order that there will be no doubt 
that it will satisfy their cus- 
tomers. Such buyers expect and 
are willing to pay more for 
guaranteed fruit than for that of 
questionable or of unknown repu- 
tation. One large dealer writes 
to an organization located in a 
section renowned for its ex- 
cellent and uniformly packed 
fruit. “We buy of you because 
we have bought of you before 
and know that your union is a 
guarantee of excellence and uni- 
formity of pack. We know (not 
guess) that the output of your 
union is excellent”. There is 
always competition between 
buyers for apples of such quality. 
Wherever such grade and 
package laws as I have men- 
tioned have been established, 
growers have found that the 
price and sales of their apples 
increased. Yermont, with an 
apple crop just about as small as 
that of Wisconsin has proved the 
advantage of such a law to its 
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