THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 475 



price too low, they could have gotten more money ; they said the Almond 

 Exchange was going to pieces, that members were falling out and that 

 this was their last year. Well, that kind of talk acted like a boomerang 



it sometimes does — and while we had four hundred members when we 



named prices, we have had sixty-three new members added since and 

 not a single withdrawal. The Almond Exchange controls today a little 

 better than sixty per cent of the crop of the State. And, friends, that 

 is not all, it has set the price for almonds of the entire United States 

 and all of the European almonds coming into the United States this 

 year. Strange thing that it could do that, don't you think? 



Now in the matter of cured fruit, surely this product can be handled 

 in a similar way, because it is not perishable and we do not have to 

 sell it the same day or the same week that it is ready for the market. 

 It will take a long time to reach the point where we can control the 

 situation as we do in almonds, because the product is so much larger. 

 I think one of the mistakes that the farmers have heretofore made 

 has been that they started in and wanted to do the whole thing in 

 one year, and then became discouraged before really accomplish- 

 ing anything. At present the Cured Fruit Exchange is made 

 up of units or local associations organized in different dis- 

 tricts. We want it understood that local associations or district organ- 

 izations are units and a starting point, and that each handles its 

 local business. They each have a representative and these representa- 

 tives form and constitute a central body or exchange. The central 

 body does the selling, other than that its work is purely advisory. 

 It will assist the local organizations all it can, but local organizations 

 are units and must assume their own burdens, and do their own busi- 

 ness. We expect by this means to strengthen and educate them and 

 fit them for taking their place in the world together with other people. 

 The work of the central body is largely that of an advisory body, except 

 that when it comes to marketing it has absolute control, and that is the 

 only way it can ever be done and done satisfactorily. 



I Mali give you just by way of illustration a little of the workings 

 of the Almond Exchange at this point, because it shows how we have 

 to grow into these things. During the first year it attempted to sell 

 at the price named, and, by the way, it is one thing to name a price and 

 another thing to get it from the trade. It takes two to make a bargain ; 

 the seller, the grower and his representatives, constitute the one, and 

 the buyer constitutes the other; and they organize, get together and 

 agree upon the price. Now if the buyer is the stronger man of the 

 two, the tendency will be to bear the market. If the seller is the 

 stronger, the tendency will be to push the market up ; so you see the 

 necessity for organization and co-operative marketing, having at the 

 head of its selling department a man. of strong character. When it 

 came to selling the almonds the first year, having a small part of the 

 crop and being forced to consult with one another, we frequently 

 received offers just a little bit under the price indicated, and the idea 



