138 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



provided. Fruit packages must be reviewed, sorted out, and 

 systematized, to avoid confusion in the general market. Infor- 

 mation bureaus must be established, that accurate data could be 

 collected from all the fruit producing sections of the world. 

 Selling agents must be placed in all the largest cities, to see that 

 the fruit was properly cared for when it reached its destination. 

 When all this was done, we had an organization, and one whose 

 volume of business cannot be recorded in less than hundreds of 

 millions of dollars. 



Owing to various peculiar conditions, the Pacific Coast led 

 off in the establishing of these cooperative associations, and now 

 they have become a prominent part of the fruit growing indus- 

 try. The volume of business aggregates 75% of the total out- 

 put of the coast. One association alone in California does an 

 amount of business twice that of the total aggregate of all the 

 fruit interests of the six New England States. 



The number of successful organizations is large. California 

 has about 40 ; Colorado, 33 ; Washington, 18 ; Oregon, 12 ; Idaho, 

 4 ; New Mexico, 3 ; Montana, i ; British Columbia, 1 1 ; and On- 

 tario, as long ago as 1896, had 24 in successful operation. The 

 California Fruit Growers' Exchange is by far the largest, and 

 handles a volume of business exceeding $20,000,000 a year. 

 The income of the state of California, from its varied indus- 

 tries, is about $1,000,000 a day. Of this amount about 1-3, or 

 one hundred and twenty million annually is represented by its 

 fruit products, 25% of this amount being handled by the one 

 exchange. 



The California Fruit Growers' Exchange operates over the 

 entire state, but confines its activities mainly to the citrus fruits. 

 This industry is large, and in years of maximum production 

 over 40,000 cars of oranges and lemons have been shipped out 

 of the state. This means in round numbers fifteen million 

 boxes, with a value of thirty million dollars. This vast business 

 is handled by the exchange direct or through subsidiary ex- 

 changes which are allied with it. 



All of the more successful organizations have been developed 

 from the producer towards the manager rather than the reverse. 

 Each locality that can get together ten or more interested grow- 

 ers forms a local association. These local bodies are further 

 organized into a district group by sending one delegate from 



