108 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
March, 1917 
Wisconsin Horticulture. 
(Continued from Page 10J) 
pects to get the greatest returns in 
the end from his endeavors along 
any line of production. The trou- 
ble is we get to looking so close to 
the end of our noses in these things 
that we forget to see what lies be- 
yond. We seem to think that be- 
cause we are getting money now 
by selling a lot of cull fruit, that 
we are making a good deal and we 
forget that we are going to lose a 
great deal more a little later on 
because we have sold cull fruit, 
and destroyed our reputation as a 
producer of the kind of fruit the 
consumer wants. It is a penny 
wise and pound foolish way of do- 
ing things and we cannot afford to 
do it as fruit growers and we must 
educate the man who is doing it 
so that he too will recognize that 
it is the wrong policy. 
A\ hen I said greater honesty was 
one of the needs of Wisconsin 
fruit growing, I did not mean to 
intimate that the grower who sells 
you fruit would cheat you on 
measure or “short change” you. 
He would clearly recognize that 
such things were dishonest, but 
mixing in a few worthless apples 
when you are supposed to he get- 
ting good ones is simply a “trick 
of the trade ' and not dishonest to 
his way of thinking. If he is dis- 
honest then, it is because he has 
not developed the right standard 
upon which to operate. But ignor- 
ance of the law does not excuse 
anyone and because he has not de- 
veloped the light standard by 
which to judge his act when he 
does that sort of thing, lie needs 
education so as to form right 
standards. He should learn that 
he is operating on the wrong 
standard both from the standpoint 
of what other folks regard as the 
proper attitude in the matter, and 
also in regard to the best method? 
of gaining the greatest remunera- 
tion from his productive efforts. 
He should be shown that at all 
times that he is the loser and not 
the gainer by such practices. 
So it behooves us all, organiza- 
tions and individuals, to do all in 
our power to educate the growers 
of fruit in Wisconsin, (those who 
are commercial growers, if they 
need education; and those who are 
not commercial growers, who most- 
ly need education if they are to 
produce fruit) to the higher and 
in the end more profitable stand- 
ards of fruit production and mar- 
keting. 
We cannot, however, stop with 
education if we are to attain these 
objects. There are some people 
who refuse to be educated. You 
have all seen men who after a 
given point had been conclusively 
proved would say, “Well, I don’t 
believe it anyway.” It reminds 
me of the old saying, “A man con- 
vinced against liis will is of the 
same opinion still.” Yes, there 
are certain people who will not be 
educated. AVhat are we going to 
do with that sort of people as re- 
gards better fruit and greater 
honesty? Wo are going to do with 
that sort of people just like we do 
with that sort of people in /every 
other phase of life. We will com- 
pel them to be good whether they 
want to or not. We will com- 
pel them by legislation, as far as 
possible, to meet these standards. 
I will not attempt to tell what laws 
we shall have, but merely throw 
out a few suggestions. We will 
legislate first, I believe, in such a 
way as to discriminate against the 
producer of poor fruit. That may 
be unconstitutional, you know, but 
that is what we are going to do. 
How are we to do it? We will dis- 
criminate against the producer of 
poor fruit by passing legislation 
which will compel a man to pack 
according to certain standards and 
to pack honestly within those 
standards. This is not a new 
thing. It has been done, in fact is 
being done, all the time. 
We have two types of legislation 
along the line of discrimination 
against the man who produces poor 
fruit, which are being tried out. 
We have a national law, as you 
all know, which is called the Sulzer 
Bill, which says that a man, if he 
is going to sell certain commodi- 
ties and label them in a certain 
way, must maintain a certain 
standard. This is an optional law 
regulating standards and may be 
a very good thing. It does not 
amount to a picayune, however, 
when it comes to this man who re- 
fused to be educated. The only 
way you can get that fellow is to 
say to him, “When you sell this 
commodity, you will pack it ac- 
cording to certain standards, and 
you will mark on the package the 
standard of the lowest grade you 
have in the package. If you want 
to pack good apples at the end of 
your barrel and fill the center with 
culls, all right, but when you label 
that barre 1 , you shall say that this 
is a barrel of culls, because it has 
culls in it.” We need, then, not 
so much an optional grading and 
labelling law, as we need a com- 
pulsory grading and labelling law. 
We have this type of law in 
operation. New York has a law of 
this type. I have heard it said 
that it is not working out satisfac- 
torily. I am not here to contro- 
vert that statement, because I have 
not investigated, but I can point 
you to a case of a similar law that 
T know is working and has been 
working for fifteen or twenty years. 
It is the Ontaiio Compulsory 
Grading and Labelling Law. We 
should not condemn too soon the 
New York law, because it may not 
be working up to the highest stand- 
ard. because they have not had 
