180 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



more than doubled that amount. We expected that the crop would be 

 in the neighborhood of 30,000 tons, and we find that it has fallen short. 

 We expected to take care of something like 22,500 tons four percentage 

 of the whole crop) and we find that we overestimated that amount. 

 Instead of peaches going slow and being a drug on the market, they 

 are in big demand. 



In our little talks that we made in the schoolhouses, I used to tell 

 them, "If you want to do your farming on business principles, you 

 must do as the groceryman dues, put up some money for your goods. 

 Now, if you put up the money, when you bring your peaches into the 

 warehouse, we will pay you for them. In other words, you must finance 

 your own business," and we got them to sign up and everybody down 

 there is now happy. 



THE ALMOND GROWERS' EXCHANGE. 



By Geo. W. Pierce, Davis, Cal. 



I can assure you this is entirely an impromptu talk, and what 1 say 

 to you on the spur of the moment will be something about cooperation 

 among almond growers. Previous to the year 1906 there was no general 

 organization of almond growers in the state of California. The first 

 almond association formed anywhere in the state was at Davis in the 

 year 1898. I had the honor to be one of the officers of that association 

 at that, time and I have continued so ever since. That was the begin- 

 ning of the organization of almond growers in California. Previous to 

 thai we had been selling almonds at a price that was ruinous. Generally 

 we received about 8 or 9 cents per pound, and those of you who under- 

 stand anything about almond production, realize that Ave couldn't main- 

 tain the business under those conditions. We organized that trial 

 association a1 Davis. We invited bids from the commission men and 

 brokers who handled the almonds of those days, and we had what was 

 seemingly spme little competition among the buyers, but it was only 

 a seeming competition. Naturally we, as a lot of farmers, did not 

 understand the business of inviting bids. We were easily imposed 

 upon. The matter was all fixed before the bidders came In us and 

 they gave us just what they saw fit and afterwards divided the crop 

 among themselves. That ran along for a year or two and we began 

 tn branch out. We went over into Brentwood in Contra Costa County 

 and induced some growers there to organize. We then went into Sutter 

 Comity and induced the Sutter County people to organize. We tried 

 to cooperate with these organizations, but it was not much of a success. 

 We had no means of getting together on a selling basis. We had then 

 tin' same trouble you are having now in all the cooperative organizations 

 which you are trying. A little later, in 1906, a general movement was 

 taken up along the line of almond work and those organizations — there 

 were six of them then, having 231 members — joined into a state associa- 

 tion known as the California Almond Growers' Exchange. 



That year we set the price, the first time that the almond growers 

 of California ever set a price, and that price, as T recall it. was about 

 1-U cents for Nonpareil. It was predicted we could not gel it and for 

 months it looked as though we couldn't get it. We held those almonds 



