474 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



get six cents, 3'ou are making some money and you are entitled to it, 

 and you are not making more in proportion then than other people who 

 are doing business. Take the matter of raisins. No matter how low the 

 price on raisins goes, the man who furni.shes the shook, the man who fur- 

 nishes the nails, the man who furnishes the labels, and the man who does 

 the packing, as well as the broker who does the selling, they are all mak- 

 ing their money. There is no difference at all in what they make, except 

 the broker perhaps, who works on a percentage basis. Everj^body makes 

 something but the farmer, and it is time for him to wake up and take a 

 position where he will begin to reap some profits from his labor. If 

 I)runes were worth four and a half and five cents possibly, last June and 

 July, why should they be worth only two cents in October. The avail- 

 able supply for the world and available producing power of the world 

 would indicate that the price should have been better instead of lower. 

 The world supply of prunes for 1912 was less by nearly twenty per cent 

 than it was for 1911, and yet the prices were going down. Why? 

 Speculation, nobody could put his hand on the wrong and stop it. Just 

 as soon as the prices on cured fruit under the speculative system start 

 on the toboggan slide downwards, everything tends to push it farther 

 down and faster. The trade will not buy when prices are going down. 

 Why should they buy more than they need this week when they have an 

 idea that next week fruit will be cheaper ? And so they defer buying, 

 and everything tends to make them stop buying. The minute you can 

 stop that downward price and give the grower a chance to hold on, that 

 nnnute you begin to strengthen the market. Then they get over their 

 panic and prices are steadied. The trade is more anxious to buy two 

 or three weeks' supply. 



The Almond Growers' Organization, formed less than three years 

 ago, has made very remarkable progress. I mention this because it 

 shows what can be done. In 1910 they had two hundred and thirty 

 members in their organization, and on the first day of September they 

 had three cars of their crop sold. In 1911 they had three hundred and 

 thirty members and on the first day of September had thirty ears of 

 their crop sold. In 1912, on the 15th day of August, they had four 

 hundred members, named their own price, and in forty-eight hours, 

 one hundred and fifteen cars, all they had to handle, were sold. And 

 this was the heaviest crop California has ever had, and it took but 

 forty-eight hours to sell it. Of course that was not all there was to 

 the story. Months previous to that the brokers and agents of the 

 Almond Exchange had been at work. They had visited the trade and 

 had taken orders subject to future prices. In making a good fair 

 price, at least three cents a pound more than they would have received 

 without any organization, they made what they considered a good fair 

 price and the trade considered it so. Some people who had been specu- 

 lating in almonds before realized that the business was slipping away 

 from them, and they started out among the growers and attempted to 

 discredit the organization. They said the organization had named a 



