THE MONTHLY BULLETIN". 471 



CALIFORNIA CURED FRUIT EXCHANGE. 



By J. P. Dargitz, Sacramento, CaL 



Ladies and Gentlemen: I believe that Dr. Cook has well stated the 

 matter when he says this is an important question, and I should have 

 been pleased if I could have had time to have prepared a paper which 

 would ver}' definitely cover the situation and put it in such a way that 

 it would become a matter of record and be considered. Therefore, on 

 such short notice, I shall simply have to give you a random talk and do 

 the best I can to give you some leading points and allow you to do the 

 necessary thinking to fill it out and make it sound as though it might 

 have been carefully written. 



This is an age of progress. In religion men are coming to do their 

 own thinking rather than allowing the preachers to do it for them. In 

 the matter of politics we have the evidence of progress about us every 

 day. You know that the "elephant" and the "moose" both claim to be 

 progressive now, and even that staid old character, the "donkey," is 

 claiming to be progressive. Now, in the matter of fruit marketing, the 

 growers are just beginning to wake up and realize what progressive 

 ideas might mean to them. We have had progressive ideas presented 

 to us in the matter of cultivation and propagation of fruits, until now 

 we are producing in quantity and qualitj'- something that is worthy of 

 consideration. We are not ready to take any back seat on these points, 

 but in the matter of compensation for our efforts in that direction we lag 

 behind. Furthermore, the fruit grower devotes his efforts and time 

 toward producing the very best that he can, but has given no thought 

 apparently to the matter of marketing his fruit. Now there is perhaps 

 a cause for this, and that is the grower works individually. He works 

 all da}' among his trees and vines, they are his companions, and when 

 evening comes he is tired. Sometimes he will read a fruit paper, more 

 often he wants to go to bed and rest. On the other hand, the people 

 who are at the market end of the business are necessarily associated with 

 each other, and they are continually studying the market end of the 

 problem and sharpening their wits on each other. They are getting 

 next to the proposition, and therefore are keenly alive to the situation, 

 as they must be for self protection. We find that the retailers have 

 their organized associations ; we find that the wholesalers have their 

 organized associations ; we find that the lawyers are organized, and 

 they name their fee bill ; we find that physicians are organized, and they 

 name their fee bill ; and we find, in fact, that the hodcarriers are 

 organized, and that they name their fee bill. We find the Japanese, 

 who have invaded our sunny clime, have even organized, and when your 

 fruit is ready to move they have got you ; they name their fee bill, and 

 you have got to come through. And, strange to say, the fruit grower is 

 not willing to organize. He gives no thought to his fee bill until he is 

 nearly starved to death and forced into it. 



The conditions of the fruit market during this season have been such 



