A SUCCESSFUL FRUIT GROWERS ASSOCIATION 45 



until today we have a scientific machine which is capable of spreading 

 its protecting wings over every grower by assuring him a square deal 

 and full market value for his products. 



What has co-operation done for our growers? 



Go back with me to the summer of 190G, the year before our as- 

 sociation was organized, and let me briefly show you the condition 

 of our growers at that time. 



Our growers are located on Ihe outskirts of our city, mostly north 

 and west, all the way from five to ten miles from the market which 

 is in the wholesale district. The growers worked late at night getting 

 their loads ready and were forced 1o get up anywhere from two to three 

 in the morning in order to be on the market to catch the early buyers 

 between five thirty and six in the morning. So through the entire 

 summer they worked early and late with insufficient rest, and were 

 worried and under a continual mental strain. 



The condition of growers where they depend on their own indi- 

 vidual efforts to market their products Is probably pretty much the 

 same in one locality as it is in any other, taking local conditions into 

 consideration, every grower is in competition with his neighbor, and 

 while they are on speaking terms they are striving and planning to get 

 the best of each other, and deep in their hearts they are envious when 

 cne of them succeeds in obtaining a better price than the others; If 

 one discovers a method of producing a fruit of superior quality that 

 will sell at higher prices he guards his secret with jealous care for 

 fear his neighbor will profit by it. 



Under these conditions our growers were never content; if they 

 had a bumper crop they worried early and late marketing it the best 

 they knew and often their returns were less than the cost of production; 

 when their crops were more or less of a failure they worried because 

 they had little or nothing to sell as prices then were generally good. 

 So our growers had the nightmare regularly as the season rolled 

 around, and they were never happy. 



Our growers all depended on the Omaha market to take their 

 products and owing to the great quantity offered when the crop was 

 a bouniful one prices were ruinously low, the commission man and 

 the retail grocer automatically evolved a great system in buying 

 There being so much to choose from they never were in a hurry to 

 buy but would go from one grower to the other telling them they were 

 too high, others were offering to sell cheaper, or their goods were too 

 poor. Our growers had no idea as to the value of their products so 

 it was a case of barter and taking the best offer they could get from day 

 to day. 



The growers became very much discouraged and many of them 

 threatened to tear out their vineyards and put in corn or alfalfa as 

 prices were being forced down so low that they could not earn fair 

 wages, to say nothing of any interest on their investment. 



