504 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



raisin grapes, and they invariably contend that the Zante currant is the 

 product of a currant bush, and is not a grape. I happened to be before 

 the Waj'S and Means Committee four years ago, when this very same 

 subject came up, and every importer present did his best to convince 

 the committee that the Zante currant was a currant and not a grape. 



Mr. Nutting. Granting all that, is it not a fact that there are so- 

 called Zante currants, grown and brought into this country, that are a 

 product of a currant bush °] 



Mr. Roeding. Not that I know of. Zante currant is really a name 

 that probably was acquired by trade usage extending over a great period 

 of years, and, of course, it is really a misnomer. 



Mr. Stabler. We grew the currant in Sutter County about ten years 

 ago. We had about twenty acres planted, and we found that it ripens 

 about two weeks earlier than the Thompson Seedless, which brings it in 

 on about the tenth of August in Sutter County. As long ago as eight or 

 ten years Senator Perkins sent to the growers for information, and sent 

 it to Washington in order to convince the committee there that currants 

 grew on grapevines and not on currant bushes. 



Mr. Nutting. I know of a man in Placer County who has had about 

 twelve acres of the red Zante currant for some time, and upon writing 

 him some time ago, he wrote me that they were still growing as well as 

 ever, and were a very profitable product, so there is one experiment 

 where they are grown comm.ercially in this State. It is at Lincoln that 

 this small red grape or currant is grown, and I believe Mr. Schmidt has 

 said something at some time about it at the experiment station. 



Mr. Schmidt. I believe it is the red variety of the currant, although 

 I believe some mention it as the white variety. 



Chairman Cook. We will now listen to Mr. W. R. Nutting, on the 

 topic of '' Co-operation of American Raisin Growers." 



CO-OPERATION OF AMERICAN RAISIN GROWERS. 



By W. R. Nutting, Fresno, Cal. 



When this topic Avas assigned to me by Dr. Cook of Sacramento under 

 the title of "Co-operation of Raisin Growers," I felt like changing it to 

 "New Methods of Co-operation." "Co-operation of Raisin Growers" 

 has groAA-n somewhat stale during the last thirty years and therefore 

 is hardly distinctive enough for our new public exchange system. The 

 growers have been trying to accomplish results by A^nrious methods 

 knoAvn to the trade generally in the past, but their efforts have ahvays 

 failed sooner or later. Sometimes they managed to stay together for a 

 year, or tAA^o or three years, but it seems to me that the principle at 

 bottom of all the old co-operative methods on what Ave call the "sign-up 

 plan" was at best fundamentally Aveak. 



For illustration, if a hundred men here in this room promised to 

 stand up along that wall for one year, it would be physically impos- 

 sible for all of them to do it. It is just about as impossible for three 



