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AMERICAN POMGEOGICAR SOCIETY 
and sold, depending upon the will of the producer or packer. It is a pleas- 
ure, however, to note that within recent years certain conditional essentials 
have been established by the National Government and by state laws govern- 
ing packing as well as the package. Those conditional essentials relate to 
the marking of the fruit after it is packed, and are steps in the right di- 
rection. 
Among these laws are the Food and Drugs Act, the Sulzer Act and the 
Maine, Michigan and New York grade laws. The Food and Drugs Act, under 
its misbranding sections, in effect, requires that the fruit in the package 
shall correspond with the marks. In other words if a barrel is marked 
“Fancy” and the fruit in it is a cider apple pack, there is no question but 
that the man responsible for it can be reached by the Government. The 
trouble is, the law is not enforced and there is no provision for reaching 
unmarked packages. The Sulzer Act demands that all fruits branded in 
accordance with its provisions shall correspond with the specifications of 
grade and size therein established. The Michigan law requires all fruit 
and vegetables in packages marked “Fancy,” “Extra Good,” “No. 1,” or 
bearing any mark indicating superiority of quality, to be 90% free from 
disease, bruises, insect injury or other defects. The same law also re- 
quires the face or shown surface to give a fair indication of the contents, 
and if 20% of the contents is inferior to the shown surface or different in 
variety, it shall be considered a false representation. Michigan, however, 
makes no provision for marking inferior grades. New York, in addition to 
a law similar in principle to the Sulzer Act, has also made it a misdemeanor 
to pack with intent to deceive, or to make false statements as to quality, 
grade, condition, etc. The Maine law goes farther than any of them and 
absolutely requires every package of apples packed in that state to be 
marked in one of four ways, i. e., Fancy, No. 1, No. 2 and Unclassified. 
Under the first three marks the grading conditions are specified and the 
fruit must correspond with the marks. Under the “Unclassified” brand 
anything and everything may be packed, providing the package bears no 
false or misleading statements. 
Your careful analysis of all these enactments will show that the primary 
emphasis is placed upon the marks, and that as long as the marks are not 
false or deceptive, or as long as the package is unmarked, there is with 
rare exceptions no limit to the quality that may be packed. The exceptions, 
as has been heretofore suggested, lie in the laws of the far west preventing 
the sale of diseased fruit; and in state statutes aimed at stuffed packages; 
but the latter laws are so few, require so much evidence to convict and 
are so loosely enforced as to be of slight effect in preventing the evils 
they are supposed to destroy. 
For years practically everything that has been grown has been packed 
in one section or another. The cider apple, leaves, twigs, windfalls and 
pumpkins have been concealed in the centers of packages with general 
immunity from punishment. Grading rules have been debauched, confi- 
dence destroyed, fraud perpetrated and no one has gone to jail, and mighty 
few have paid a fine. In the light of practical experience and the laws of 
the land, I therefore repeat that the absolute essentials in packing are 
