42 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



WHAT COOPERATION HAS MEANT TO THE PEACH 



GROWERS. 



By J. F. Niswandeb, Vice President and Manager of California Peach Growers, Inc., 



Fresno, California. 



For two years previous to the organization of the California Peach 

 Growers Company, peach growers had been forced to sell their peaches 

 at prices ranging from two and one-quarter to three and one-half cents 

 a pound, although the average cost of production of dried peaches was 

 nearer four cents a pound. This condition was indeed discouraging, 

 and many growers, rather than harvest them, allowed the peaches to 

 fall from the trees and rot on the ground. It was during these years 

 that much national publicity was given to the distress of cotton growers 

 in the southern states, who, it was claimed, were not making a living 

 at the then prevailing prices for cotton. The humble peach grower, 

 during the same period, was making less on his investment than the 

 cotton grower would have made if the price of cotton had been 25 per 

 cent lower than it actually was. In short, the peach growers woe 

 driven to action. The time had come when they must unite into one 

 body with a single purpose — that of bettering the market for dried 

 peaches. 



Aggressive growers, therefore, in the Fresno district launched an 

 organization campaign which was to be state-wide in its scope. They 

 realized at the outset that such a campaign would require untiring 

 effort and tremendous sacrifice on the part of the workers. In order 

 to secure the confidence and support of the banking interests of the 

 state it was decided that the association should take the form of a 

 stock company. Accordingly, solicitors were set to work in all of the 

 peach-growing sections of the state. They carried crop contracts and 

 stock subscription blanks for growers' signatures, but they had much to 

 contend with. Numberless attempts had previously been made to form 

 cooperative marketing organizations, but most of them had resulted 

 in failure. One or two had accomplished the desired end and their 

 successes were cited as examples of what the company would mean to 

 the peach growers. However, the effect of one failure on the minds 

 of the growers offset a half dozen successes, and they were timid 

 about joining and subscribing to support a new, untried enterprise. 

 Furthermore, competitive packing interests were active among the 

 growers, offering them much advice as to the probable failure of 

 the company and incidentally agreeing to pay six cents for their peaches, 

 while the growers company only guaranteed five cents a pound. This 

 was hard competition. Most of the growers, however, felt the real need 

 for a cooperative association, since it had been burned into their minds 

 by two disappointing, profitless years. They signed the crop contract, 

 but many hesitated to subscribe for stock and had to be urged and 

 entreated before they would undertake this obligation. At last, when 

 May 1st came, the date on which organization was to be completed, more 

 than $700,000.00 had been subscribed and 80 per cent of the freestone 

 acreage of the state had been signed up for a five-year contract. 



The problem of housing the new crop had to be attacked at once. 

 The manufacturing department was confronted with unusual and 



