A year ago your committee on marketing reported that there were certain things needed, and an ideal system was suggested to correct these faults.  One of the basic factors emphasized was standardization.  Another committee reported on changes needed in the statutes regarding the weight of a bushel of apples.  Congress has enacted a law which specifies the size of a barrel for apples.  New York, Massachusetts and other states have enacted grading laws.  Some states require that the fruit be free of certain insect and disease injuries.  Several states have laws regulating commission men.  Most states have laws which do not allow the sale of food products that are decayed.  These are all steps toward the standardization that is so necessary.  In other words, the several laws have been passed to correct some of the troubles which have come up when so many hands handle the products.  These laws were not needed in olden times when the consumer went directly to the producer’s door and there bargained for his wares.

Minnesota is a state noted for co-operative enterprises.  There are over two thousand such organizations doing more than $60,000,000.00 worth of business yearly.  We know full well the value of the co-operative creameries and how butter has been brought up to a high standard.  As citizens, we rejoice; as horticulturists, and citizens as well, we want our products to stand high in the estimation of others.  I was much pained this summer while discussing the marketing of apples with several commission men to hear them say that they did not like to take local shipments.  The reason was that the goods were usually below grade, and the returns did not always please the growers.  It is evident that we must improve our methods in ways which will remove this stigma.  Many of the commission men try to induce good grading and packing.  They like to handle “top notch” goods, for it is cheaper to handle goods that move quickly than those that are a drag and require too much handling.  The Agricultural Extension Division of the College of Agriculture is organized to give help, where help is needed, along a large number of agricultural lines.

Realizing these facts, we have been trying to get the ear of the producer and consumer in an effort to get them to do certain things.  On the one hand, we want to have good varieties, and to help this lectures and demonstrations are given in the care of the orchard, pruning, spraying, thinning, picking, grading, packing and marketing.  On the other hand we want more people to eat Minnesota apples.  It is a campaign of education and publicity.

If one wishes to sell anything, he finds that he must advertise.  He must advertise so much and in so many ways that people cannot help buying his wares.  There are certain widely advertised articles that you must know, whether you are interested or not.  One of these runs along the highways so often that you are shaken, even against your will, into consciousness of its existence, so that you cannot get along without having one, or at least seeing one.  The latest edition seems to have put on feathers in the form of a white dove of peace.  May it succeed.  Advertising Minnesota apples has been attempted this past year.