Nor. 2, 1908.J Agricultural Gazette of N.S. Jr. 945 



his market slnggisli, and is unahle to sell at the average prices prevailing else- 

 where, he 2:)roiiiptly advises the head office in Los Angeles, and sufficient fruit 

 is diverted from his market to relieve it and restore prices to normal level. 

 In actual practice approximately 40 per cent, of all the fruits shipped by the 

 Exchange is sold by public auction at point of consumption, and of the 

 remaining GO per cent, the greater part is sold at private sale at a price agreed 

 upon between the seller and purchaser at point of arrival on market condi- 

 tions as they prevail at that time. Through these agencies of its own 

 the Exchange is able to get and transmit to its members the most trust- 

 worthy information regarding market conditions, visible sujDplies, etc. This 

 system affords a maximum of good service at a minimsim cost. The volume 

 of the business is so large that a most thoiough equipment is maintained at 

 a much less cost to growers than any other selling agency can offer. 



"During the fourteen years of co-operation in the marketing of citrus fruits 

 under the Exchange system, the output of the State has increased from 

 4,100 cars in 1892--> to 31,791 cars (including Northern California shipments) 

 during the season of 1904-5, with a prospect of a still further increase in 

 in the voluaie of shipments in the very near future. 



"Marketing the fruit for its growers at actual cost, the Exchange has been 

 able to bring about a great reduction in packing ar:d selling charges, with 

 the result that the average cost per box of both packing and marketing 

 oranges to Exchange growers has during recent years averaged around 35c. 

 as against 75c. per box at the time the Exchange was organised, when the 

 charges by speculative shippers for packing alone was 40c. to 50c. per box, 

 to which was added for selling 7 to 10 per cent, commission on the delivered 

 price. 



" This co-operative movement is no longer an experiment. Organised upon 

 lines materially differing ivom any other co-operative organisation, all the 

 details had to be worked out with extreme care and caution. To have failed 

 would havp been to utterly demoralise the citrus fruit industry, as there v.ere 

 no other adequate marketing facilities. Serious blunders in the execution of 

 the plan would have been almost equally disastrous. Naturally this growers' 

 organisation has met with very strenuous and, in some instances, bitter 

 opposition from the speculative elements in the fruit trade 



" The Exchange is not a Trust. It neitl.>er seeks to control production, nor 

 arbitrarily to fix prices. It does, of course, undertake so far as possible, by a 

 simple method of co-opei'ation, to displace the competition of one grower with 

 another in the matter of packing and marketing their fruit. By purely 

 economical, as distinguished from trust methods, it ensures to every grower 

 the full reward of growing good fruit, and to every association the benefit of 

 good grading and })acking." 



i.-^^ 



