144 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



were worth. At the instance of these far-sighted producers, a mass 

 meeting was held in San Jose at which the situation was laid before 

 the growers assembled, who then and there delegated to a duly author- 

 ized committee the task of acquiring prune and apricot market and 

 crop information and disseminating the knowledge thus acquired among 

 the prune and apricot growers of California. 



1915 COMMITTEE. 



The committee, which has since become known as the 1915 Fruit- 

 growers Committee, held meetings at regular intervals throughout the 

 summer and fall, and at these meetings exchanged information among 

 its members and prepared reports which were published in the San 

 Jose Mercury and in the agricultural press of the state. Early in the 

 course of its activities, the committee became convinced that the crop 

 was shorter and the market conditions better than the speculative 

 interests had led the public to believe and that, in view of the circum- 

 stances involved, much higher prices were justified than those named 

 in the early sales contracts. The committee therefore used every means 

 in its power to induce the growers to hold for better prices. To the 

 credit of the growers, be it said, the committee's advice was well 

 accepted by a large number of them in the Santa Clara Valley and 

 elsewhere, but it was not taken by many other growers for the simple 

 reason that they did not know of it, as the committee had only limited 

 avenues of publicity at its command. Although the activities of the 

 committee were a factor in the 1915 market and did much towards 

 raising and maintaining prune prices, the members of the committee 

 realized that a more complete success was not obtained because their 

 organization was not sufficiently complete and comprehensive. 



GROWERS INFORMATION BUREAU. 



With this idea in mind, the 1915 committee prepared the plan for 

 the formation of the Growers Information Bureau which came into 

 being at a representative mass meeting of prune and apricot growers 

 held in San Jose on January 19, 1916. This meeting was well attended 

 by Santa Clara Valley growers and there were representatives present 

 from nearly every other prune and apricot growing section of Cali- 

 fornia. 



The organizers of the information bureau intended eventually to 

 form a selling agency for prune and apricot growers, but were of the 

 opinion that at least a year's time should be devoted to the acquiring 

 of an accurate knowledge of the conditions involved. They believed 

 that the chief public work of the information bureau for the present 

 season should consist in the dissemination of such information among 

 the prune and apricot growers as would enable them to receive fair 

 prices for their products. But events do not always eventuate as 

 scheduled, and before the information bureau was able to complete its 

 own organization, the prune and apricot growers from certain sections 

 became so insistent in their demand for the immediate formation of a 

 selling organization, that the promotion of the information bureau 

 became interested in this question. Under these circumstances it 

 became the duty of the information bureau to prepare a plan for a 



