ipiS 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 29 



ment is made by the California 

 Fruit Growers' Exchange that in 

 the year closed August 31, 1917, 

 it returned to citrus growers the 

 enormous sum of $33,611,000. 



The California Fruit Growers' 

 Exchange long has been recog- 

 nized as the largest co-operative 

 organization of farmers in the 

 world, and has been the model 

 held up to the agriculturists of 

 America. Such authorities as Sir 

 Horace Plunkett, Harbert Quick, 

 Charles Holman and Charles Mc- 

 Carthy have made studies of its 

 success and have sought to have 

 its methods adapted to other 

 localities. 



According to the report for the 

 year recently closed, the Exchange 

 now markets 09 per cent of all 

 oranges, lemons and grapefruit 

 grown in California, a business 

 which last year totaled 15,492,990 

 boxes of citrus fruit. This tre- 

 mendous volume of fruit was 

 marketed at a cost of 4% cents a 

 box, and not a single penny was 

 lost through bad debts or other 

 causes. The annual report points 

 out that in the last 14 years the 

 business of the growers' organiza- 

 tion has amounted to $226,100,000, 

 on which losses from bad debts and all 

 other causes have been less than $8,000, 

 or 35/10,000ths of 1 per cent. The total 

 California citrus crop of last season 

 amounted to 53,830 carloads. 



The Exchange is composed of 8,000 

 growers and acts as a clearing house 

 for the bulk of the California crop. 

 Growers pool their fruit, which is then 

 graded in 150 packing houses, and, 

 under the direction of the central office, 

 is distributed through the organiza- 

 tion's sales offices to all parts of the 

 country. The service is performed at 

 absolute cost. 



The citrus industry has virtually been 

 organized upon a manufacturing basis. 

 For advertising in newspapers and 

 other periodicals each box of oranges is 

 assessed two and one-quarter cents and 

 every box of lemons four cents. Last 

 year this netted a fund of nearly half a 

 million dollars for publicity work. 

 According to the report, the growers 

 look to advertising to increase the con- 

 sumption of oranges and lemons and 

 thereby make room for the rapidly- 

 increasing crops. During the ten years 

 in which advertising has been done, the 

 consumption of citrus fruits has in- 

 creased 80 per cent, or four times as 

 rapidly as population. 



The growers in the Exchange have 

 their own mutual insurance compact. 

 They operate a supply company which 

 last year purchased for its members 

 packing house and orchard supplies 

 worth $5,459,574, A large tract of tim- 

 ber land, with saw mills and lumbering 

 equipment from which box wood is 

 made, is owned and operated by the 

 growers. In order to dispose of the 

 unmerchantable lemons a by-products 

 plant has been constructed which last 

 year converted 6 per cent of the lower 

 grades into citric acid and other by- 

 products. The interests of the growers 



MOLES HAVE NO EYES.SOj 

 THEY CAN'T READ MY r 

 BILLBOARDS AND GET 

 WISE. DON'T YOU BE 

 A MOLE! 



Pittsburgh Perfect Cement 



C02lt6Cl NdllS are of the highest standard 



The Heads don't come off. Given Preference by Largest Pacific Coast Packers 

 MANUFACTURED EXCLUSIVELY BY 



PITTSBURGH STEEL COMPANY, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



A. C. RULOFSON COMPANY, Pacific Coast Agents 

 359 Monadnock Building, San Francisco, California 



East Through 



California 



When you go East via California you may visit San Francisco, 

 all the resorts along the Road of a Thousand Wonders, 



Los Angeles and 



Sunny Southern California, 



The Apache Trail of Arizona. 



Liberal stopovers are permitted at various points en route. 



Four trains a day from Portland offer 

 ample accommodations. 



Inquire at any S. P. agency, or address 



John M. Scott, General Passenger Agent 

 Portland, Oregon 



Southern Pacific Lines 



WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



