Winter Meeting. 205 



plan of marketing- is faulty, and, I think, wrong. Still it is much 

 belter than it was before we had local organizations. At the present 

 time, one or two organizations consisting of most of the growers in 

 one locality get together, form an association, govern themselves by 

 uniform rules, work in harmony, and ship the product in car loads to- 

 gether. This is good as far as it goes. It has made it possible for 

 most of us to stay in the business, but it doesn't reach far enough. 

 There are more than twenty such associations in this belt, each load- 

 ing and shipping on the same day. These berries are scattered out 

 more or less independently and within two or three days we usually 

 find that some markets have been neglected while others have two 

 or three times as many as they can dispose of to good advantage. 

 Then the neglected market gets excited, sends out inflated quotations 

 and the result is that too many are sent there, and it gets the same 

 sort of a dose the other one got on the day before. 



So it see-saws all through the season and by the time the grower 

 gets in all his belated returns, if he isn't bilious he certainly looks it. 



EXCESSIVE TRANSPORTATION RATES. 



Another serious drawback to the grower is the excessive rate 

 charged by transportation companies for hauling berries to market. 

 I say excessive because in certain districts where competition is 

 strong, the refrigerator lines carry berries for the simple mileage rate, 

 with the icing added at cost. They certainly are not losing money at 

 this rate, which, by the way, is about one-third of what we have to 

 pay; for they continue to do this year after year, and seem very 

 anxious for the business even at the low rate. Then again you will 

 notice the same cars we use for strawberries, hauling ordinary freight 

 all the balance of the year for the ordinary mileage rate. If there is 

 any good reason why a refrigerator car is worth three times as much 

 during strawberry time as it is one month before or one month after, 

 then I certainly fail to see it. If we could get the ordinary mileage 

 rate for refrigerator cars, and pay a reasonable price for the neces- 

 sary ice, it would make a wonderful difference m the width of the 

 gap between the market price and the net returns. I do not think, 

 however, that growers will be able to secure this result under the 

 present system of organization. It is in my opinion of the highest 

 importance that all our organizations get together and market the 

 entire product from one fountain head. We have at various times in 

 the past tried to do this, but there have been too^ many mental reser- 

 vations. We must try again and try harder. If we can not find 



