Vm RURAL, N E W - YORKER 
1263 
New Fruit Growers 1 Organization For 
Western New York 
A MOVEMENT TOWARD STANDARDIZATION. 
—Western New York fruit-growers took a de¬ 
finite step in giving Eastern fruit its own place in 
the world's markets when they formed the Western 
New York Fruit Growers’ Co-operative Packing 
Association in Albion, Orleans County, May 26. That 
New York apples, peaches and other fruit should 
eventually appear on the markets under their own 
brand was inevitable, and it is interesting to note 
that the movement for a standardized pack had its 
inception in certain labor-income figures. 
FINANCIAL RECORDS.—When the Niagara 
County Farm Bureau was established in 1913 E. II. 
Anderson, the first manager, realizing that hi* was 
first and foremost a fruit-growing county, and that 
the Farm Bureau should therefore have facts and 
figures, on the fruit business, made one of the pro¬ 
jects of the Farm Bureau that first year the keeping 
of cost accounts and other farm management records. 
He filed the records of the farmers who grew fruit 
in his county, and they have been kept every year 
since, giving an accurate financial record of one of 
the typical fruit-growing sections of Western New 
York. During the second year of the Farm Bureau, 
1014, certain fruit-growers of the county, possibly 
on the basis of this first year’s cash account records, 
decided that they were not getting enough for their 
apples. They formed three separate co-operative 
marketing associations in the county to meet the need 
for better sales methods. Their principal 
purpose in combining was to strengthen 
themselves in selling their fruit, but un¬ 
fortunately for what was to come' later, 
two of these original associations estab¬ 
lished central packing houses. 
THE FARM BUREAU.—In February, 
1010, three years after its establishment. 
Nelson R. Peet became manager of the 
Niagara County Farm Bureau. lie had 
been born and brought up just down the 
lake, in Monroe County, had gone to 
public and high school in Rochester, and 
had completed the regular four-year 
course in the State College of Agricul¬ 
ture at Cornell in 1910. specializing in 
horticulture. The six years since he 
graduated had been spent in partnership 
with his father on the home farm at 
Webster, in the northeast corner of Mon- 
mo County, growing nursery stock, re¬ 
juvenating old orchards and planting 
new ones. He knows the fruit business 
from every angle, and his ability as a 
man who ‘‘gets things done" is shown by 
the membership record of his Farm 
Bureau. When ho became manager it 
hud 325 pledged members, of whom 175 
had paid their dues. Three years later, 
in 1919, the membership had increased 
to 2,303, making this the largest Farm Bureau in the 
Baited States. The conception and development of 
the spraying service, which has been followed by 
other fruit-growing counties of the State, by means 
of which 1,300 fruit-growers received, this year, 
overnight, definite telephone spraying recommenda¬ 
tions, has been described in most of the agricultural 
papers, as lias the County Farm Labor Bureau 
which, in 1917, placed 1,200 men who came to the 
I'ann Bureau office in 10 days in response to a wide¬ 
spread advertising campaign for peach-pickers. The 
man who conceived and developed these projects, 
besides interesting himself as chairman of the State 
drainage Law Committee for two and a half years, 
m the development of drainage, particularly the 
construction and maintenance of open ditches, is the 
m.ui who came to the Niagara County Farm Bureau 
s manager in 1916, and who has now become the 
general manager of the new fruit-packing organiza¬ 
tion. 
the MARKETING PROBLEM.—Early in the 
inter of 191S a study of the five years' cost- 
account records then assembled in the Farm Bureau 
otfice showed that Niagara County fruit-growers 
were not making the labor incomes commonly sup¬ 
posed. Further study showed that the problem ot 
making a living was one of marketing, and that 
better marketing was impossible without standard¬ 
ization, u result four more associations were 
formed that year, which federated with the three 
original ones into a Niagara County Association with 
a brand of its own. It is worth noting here that 
this county association was formed on the principle 
that the fundamental solution of the marketing 
problem lies in an honest, standardized pack first of 
all, rather than in any revolutionizing or marketing 
methods. As will be seen later this idea, that the 
original solution of market problems must start with 
the grower instead of the middle of the marketing 
chain, has prevailed in the subsequent activities of 
Western New York fruit growers. It is possible 
that here may lie the strength of their new organi¬ 
zation. 
GROWTH OF THE MOVEMENT.—The year after 
the formation of the Niagara County Association, 
1919, saw the addition to it of three more local 
associations, a decided increase of interest over the 
State and a flood of questions fi’om fruit-growers 
throughout Western New York. P»y April of 1920 
14 associations had been established in Niagara 
County, four in Orleans, three in Monroe, five in 
Wayne and one in Seneca, and other communities 
were seriously considering the proposition. 
TIIE UNIFORM BRAND.—The desirability of a 
uniform brand in all these associations and the need 
of packing to a uniform grade in all of them 
prompted the Niagara County Association to invite 
directors of all the others to a meeting held in Albion 
on May IS. where a plan for a central association 
was presented,’ together with articles of agreement 
which were carried back to each local for action. 
It is worthy of note that 15 local associations so 
clearly saw the need for a central organization that, 
without any outside assistance and with no propa¬ 
ganda. they sent duly elected representatives to 
Albion again on May 26, authorized to enter into a 
central organization for their locals. The Western 
New York Fruit Growers’ Co-operative Association 
is incorporated for $50,000, with a limit of liability 
of $500 for each member association. The five 
original directors are E. II. Boynton of Lockport 
If. W. Davis of Alton. F. .T. Freestone of Interlaken. 
I. I.. Vosler of Lyndonville, and J. A. McCollum of 
Newfane. Mr. McCollum is elected temporarily until 
such time as Monroe County is represented by a 
member association. 
AN EXPERIENCED MANAGER.—Nelson R. 
Feet’s record of service during his four and a half 
years with the Niagara County Farm Bureau, de¬ 
scribed above, coupled with his development of 11 
new central packing-house associations in that 
county, solved the problem of a manager for the new 
association. Tie was elected general manager by the 
directors at a meeting in Rochester May 29. to begin 
his duties July 1 iu a central office in Rochester. 
The function of the new organization will relate 
chiefly tv standardising the braud and maintaining 
uniform pack, centralizing the efforts of all local 
member associations and assisting in the formation 
of new ones. It will become the logical and visible 
head of the central packing house proposition of 
Western New York. The fruit industry of that terri¬ 
tory normally yields about fifty million dollars’ 
worth of product a year. With such a field and only 
a small portion of it developed as yet, the possibili¬ 
ties for new associations are great. The central 
organization will not be concerned with the sales of 
fruit, since growers have decided that, for the 
present at least, the standardization of the pack is 
even more important than collective selling. When 
the brand on Western New York fruit is known as 
the sign of an honest, standard pack, who can fore¬ 
tell the limits of such an organization? b. a. 
That Annual White Sweet Clover 
N NEV> JERSEY.—We are receiving reports from 
people who are trying the new annual Sweet 
clover. As readers will remember, the plants of this 
Sweet clover were discovered by accident in a green¬ 
house at the Iowa Agricultural College. No one 
seems to know just where the seed came from, or 
how this new variety came to be, but it is evident 
from all reports that the annual is giving a good 
account of itself. The old-time Sweet clover re¬ 
quired- two years to make its growth, and many of 
our Eastern fruit-growers and farmers 
have felt that too much time was re¬ 
quired with this variety. The annual 
clover appears to make about as large a 
growth, and does it ail in one season. 
If upon thorough trial this trait seems 
to be fixed in clover, it will without ques¬ 
tion prove a great blessing to many of 
our Eastern farmers. We have a small 
quantity growing iu good soil. It started 
four days after seeding, and is now mak¬ 
ing a remarkable growth, although it 
is not old enough yet to tell just what 
it will come to. Thus far it grows faster 
than any legume we have ever had ex¬ 
perience with. Many readers report a 
similar growth. 
IN THE SOUTH.—A. 1. Root of Ohio 
has tried this clover in Florida, and has 
made a great success of it there. He 
wrote us on July 1 that the clover was 
six feet high when he last heard of it. 
and that this growth of six feet had been 
made in 98 days in the Florida climate. 
His plants in Ohio were growing at the 
rate of an inch and a half every 24 hours. 
It seems hard to believe such statements, 
but from the way our own crop has 
started it seems fully probable to us. 
When we consider that such a growth 
can be made in a short season, and when we realize 
that Sweet clover lias about the same analysis as 
Alfalfa, we can imagine the possibilities of such a 
crop in our Northern farming. If the annual clover 
proves as vigorous as the reports indicate it will be 
quite possible in the latitude of New Jersey to grow 
an early farm crop and promptly follow it with this 
Sweet clover and prodt ?e a crop by October which 
will be equal in value to eight or 10 loads of manure 
to the acre. Such a crop could be followed by rye, 
which could he plowed under the following Spring, 
or left on the ground as a cover crop. The possibili¬ 
ties of such a quick growth in the South are almost 
beyond calculation, and we think that if after ex¬ 
periment this annual clover proves what is claimed 
for it, that it will be generally adopted and greatly 
change our Northern system of farming. 
THE BIENNIAL FORM.—We have the old two- 
year Sweet clover growing in our apple orchard. 
There was a light seeding several years ago and 
after this crop was cut, a few scattering plants 
started. We let these form seed and then cut with 
the mower, forking the cutting around the trees. 
This distributed the seed, and this plan, followed 
year after year, has thickened the seeding and made 
a heavy crop, which makes a fine mulch for the trees. 
GROWING LIKE A WEED.—In many places 
Sweet clover is regarded as a weed, and farmers 
fight it as they do ragweed. We have one ease 
