THE MONTHL/5 Bl l.l.KTIN. 159 



SCIENTIFIC DISTRIBUTION OF FRUIT. 



By Harris Weinstock, Dlrei tor, State Commission Market, San Francisco, Cal. 



One of the first things I did immediately after my appointment about 

 a year ago as the firsl State Market Director of California, was to make 

 a survey of the Eastern markets, to familiarize myself with the market- 

 ing conditions of the Bast. I for one* and I think you sympathize with 

 me, keenly appreciate the Fad thai unless we ran find the broadest 

 possible markets for the two hundred and one million dollars' worth of 

 fruit and perishable products raised in the Slate of California, we will 

 find ourselves submerged by calamity. Jusl imagine the condition we 

 would be in if we had no market ouside of California for our two 

 hundred or more million dollars' worth of products from our vine- 

 yards, farms and orchards! In order that our home market may be 

 kept in a healthy condition, and may not be submerged, it is of the 

 greatest importance to develop and to aid in developing our Eastern 

 and our foreign markets so that our home markets may be kept in a 

 healthy condition. 



As a result of the survey made through the large Eastern cities, I 

 Found that in the more recent years splendid work had been done on 

 the part of the exchanges, on the part of the private shipping com- 

 panies and on the pari of the distributing associations, alone' the lines 

 of finding new markets for California products. I keenly appreciate 

 that fact all the more when, as I stated this morning, as far back as 

 thirty years ago 1.000 carloads of California fresh fruits glutted the 

 markets: and now at this time, despite the Fad that vast acreages in 

 such .states as Colorado. Arizona, Oregon and Idaho and Washington 

 have come into bearing, in direct competition with California, we are 

 marketing in the neighborhood of seventeen thousand carloads of fruits 

 a year, showing clearly that splendid work must have been done on 

 the part of the exchanges ami shipping organizations in developing 

 markets. 



1 saw no way lo improve upon what had been done along the lines 

 of market development. I think thai end of it is well handled, but I 

 found one serious weak spot in the method of distribution that has cost 

 the growers of California and will continue lo cost them possibly 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, a weak spot that ha.s never 

 been broughl effectively to their notice- and that weak spot is blind 

 shipping. 



When it comes to noiiperishable products, the only loss sustained by 

 Mind shipping is the less of reshipping. In other words, if we would 

 overload the < Ihicago market or the Si. Louis market or the New < Means 



market with our dried products, Hi ly loss involved would be the 



expense of diverting and reshipping, bu1 when it comes to perishable 

 products ii is of the utmosl importance that there should be the most 

 intelligent, scientific distribution. Gluts mean a aeedless waste to the 

 growers. A product that ought lo bring $2.00, if the market is seriously 

 glutted may only bring a fracti f $2.00, lo the loss of the grower. 



There are competing shipping organizations. We have the Exchange, 

 which represents aboul r> per cenl of the deciduous fruits. We have 

 what are known as the Distributors, representing fifteen or sixteen of 



