3S8 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Then everyone of those small growers subsequently did indi- 

 vidually, what they refused to do collectively, that is they said, 

 "Those fellows have a big lot of fruit tied up until September 1, 

 and we will just wait until they sell and we will get just as much 

 as they will and not tie ourselves up either." Nobody did sell until 

 after the 1st of September. There were 00,000 barrels of apples 

 sold on that one day. >Vhen the buyers had bought our apples 

 they claimed to have enough apples, did not want any more. Then 

 there was a stampede amongst the little fellows. They could not 

 sell their ai>ples at our price and the majority had to sell for con- 

 siderably less than the apples we sold on the lirst of September. We 

 received |3.50 to |3.65 in the orchard, and some as high as |4.00 to 

 |4.25. We got a good, round blessing on account of our combine, 

 and could not get a single man to sign up this year. 



Another thing happened that ought to be interesting. A gentle- 

 man came to see me at Washingtim, to organize an association of 

 fruit growers. The result of his visit to me was the organization 

 of what has since been known as the Mrginia Fruit Growers' Ex- 

 change. About the same time there was organized, in the upper 

 end of Virginia, the Shenandoah Fruit Growers' Association. Be- 

 tween those two associations, the one in the upper end of the valley, 

 and the one in the lower end, there was 100,000 to 120,000 barrels 

 of apples tied up. The result of this co-operation was that the 

 apple prices sprung from |2.25 and |2.50 to |3.00 and $4.00, al- 

 though the two organizations really controlled very little fruit. 



You gentlemen are very much interested in spray materials at 

 this time. I found you talking exactly like our own people talk. 

 One gentleman was asking the price of some brand of material. 

 Another was asking what his neighbor was going to pay for "Scale- 

 cide." Another one what his spray machinery was going to cost. 

 So many people talking about the price of things and so few about 

 the value of things. 1 wish our people would talk more about 

 the value of things and less about the price. Fruit growing is not 

 a cheap man's job. Why could not an organization help us in 

 buying our spray material and machines. 



One of the things all of us of this section need most, is the 

 co-operation of an organization that will confine us to a standard 

 pack: Let us forget that we are going to sell this fruit at all. Get 

 up a series of co-operative organizations. Have delegates of every 

 organization meet together and decide what the apple pack would be. 



Down in Mrginia the apple buyers come from New Orleans and 

 New York. Ten to fifteen were there in one season. Six were there 

 yet when I left on Tuesday, of this week. One man came bring- 

 ing five or six men with him and planning to hire fifteen or twenty 

 more. Before we knew it he had picked up six, eight or ten of our 

 best workmen, and boomed the price of our labor. It has gotten 

 so now that it is difficult to get experienced help because these 

 apple buyers pick them all up. An efficient organization could own 

 or at least help this situation. 



I believe T am the only grower in Frederick county who does 

 not have a man representing the buyer come in his orchard to 

 superintend the packing. Under no circumstances will I have an- 

 other man to come in my orchard to superintend my work. So 



