Missouri State Board of Horticulture. 379 



regular fruit handlers. The earnings from this factory go into 

 the regular funds of the association. 



Two building associations have been formed among the 

 members for the purpose of building our present office building 

 and warehouse. A certain amount of the funds of the Growers' 

 Association are every year placed into a sinking fund with which 

 the stock of the building association is gradually being acquired. 



I have not been able to find very much about prices re- 

 ceived by growers outside of the association. However, grapes 

 sold in the Council Bluffs grocery stores most of the summer at 

 15 cents per basket and part of the time at two for 25 cents. 

 During this time we were getting from 16 to 20 cents, our average 

 price for the year being about 17 cents. I can't say what the 

 growers received for these grapes, but the grocery store must 

 have made 4 or 5 cents, so the grower probably got about 10 

 cents a basket, a loss of over 60 per cent by not shipping through 

 the association. Even this price, of course, is much higher than 

 he would have received if there had been no association, as the 

 shipping out of a large per cent of the crop, of course, keeps the 

 local price up. 



For several years the Omaha, and I think, the Florence, 

 Neb., fruit growers, sold their fruit through our association. 

 At the present time we are handling the fruit of the Missouri 

 Valley (Iowa) Association. If the plan here is to organize a 

 group of small associations, I think that you will find that one 

 good manager and one bookkeeper will be able to handle the 

 business of several associations. This plan would enable you 

 to hire a manager by the year and so not lose a good man by 

 laying him off in the winter. It will also enable you to pay a 

 better salary and get a more efficient man. A good manager 

 should be secured for $100 to $200 a month. 



FURTHER EXTENSION OF CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT AMONG 



FRUIT GROWERS. 



(R. E. Hanley, secretary and treasurer North American Fruit Exchange, Chicago, 111.) 



I was told here today that out on one hundred fourteen 

 counties in the State of Missouri one hundred ten of those were 

 producing apples commercially, those counties having produced 

 in a normal season five thousand carloads. The further fact 

 was brought out that Missouri, among the most prominent of 

 our states in the production of apples, is probably the most 



