44 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



A SUCCESSFUL FRUIT GKOWERS ASSOCIATION AND ITS IJENE- 



FITS TO THE GKOWERS. 

 By N. H. NELSON, Omaha, Nebraska. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: When the principals of 

 successful distribution have been perfected and solved to the satisfac- 

 tion of all so that a grower can, with perfect safety, plant out an 

 orchard with the assurance that it will return to him a fair profit on 

 his investment and labor, a great deal of the credit will be due to the 

 work of the State Horticultural Societies. 



Last week I had the pleasure of attending the annual meeting of 

 the State Horticultural Association at Columbia, Mo., They have had 

 experts all through the state taking the orchard census and they have 

 a chart of each county and every orchard of any size tabulated show- 

 ing that Missouri has something like 15,000 acres of unorganized, 

 and most of which is unproductive, and badly neglected orchards. It is 

 the task of reclaiming these orchards and putting them on a com- 

 mercial basis that they have taken upon themselves. 



When I was shown the enormous amount of work which had al- 

 ready been done and what they expected still to accomplish I could 

 scarcely believe it, and I felt a good deal like the farmer when attending 

 his first circus. He was admiring the animals and finally came to the 

 giraffe, he stopped short, saw it move its head, shift its feet, switch 



its tail, and walking around it he finally remarked, "O H , there 



ain't no such animal." 



Today the question of distribution is being given more thought 

 and study by the producing classes than any other subject; they have 

 discovered that the question of producing is of no more importance, 

 if as much, as that of distribution. Individual efforts are inadequate 

 and do not meet the requirments of the times so where the growers 

 are in sufficient numbers they are organizing themselves into co- 

 operative associations and through this channel are handling perishable 

 products very successfully. Co-operation is also being tried out by 

 other lines of business with more or less success but the "big noise" 

 "Which is developing and perfecting the principals of co-operation is the 

 "fruit industry", while the apple occupies the center of the stage. 



I have no theoretical ideas regarding co-cpe"'alion but such 

 theories and opinions as I may advance I have gained from practical 

 experience covering a period of twenty-five years in the wholesale 

 fruit business, and also as organiser and manager of the Omaha Fruit 

 Growers Association. During that time I have represented, or sold, 

 the products of every kind of fruit and vegetable association that has 

 been organized . 



Our first associations were crude affairs compared with those 

 of today, but the weak and undesirable features have been elimited 

 while new and improved methods have been added from year to year 



