FRUIT GROWERS' ASSOCIATIONS IN THE MISSOURI VALLEY 117 



market. One grower can not afford to employ a man to study the 

 markets and estimate the demand for any particular variety of fruit — 

 twenty growers can, and the information secured can be relied upon to 

 the end that only so much fruit may be grown as will supply the local 

 market and secure an adequate outlet in distant markets. His advice need 

 not be binding upon his employers further than the dictates of self-interest 

 — that will be enough. A complete organization with a competent man- 

 ager, as outlined above, can also study market conditions at distant ship- 

 ping points and investigate the business standing and rating of concerns 

 dealt with, eliminating losses through irresponsible consignees and bad 

 markets. To my mind, one of the greatest functions of an organization 

 is to raise the standards of quality in the fruit produced by its members. 

 Very often this is a matter determined by competition, but can only be 

 understood and attained by first-hand knowledge of its requirements. Let 

 the organization, through Its officers, require that no fruit bearing the 

 stamp of the company be offered for sale that is not up to or above the 

 standard set by its competitors, and there will be no difficulty in finding a 

 market for all that is produced. In fact, a constant extension of the 

 market may be expected. An absolute standard of quality is the best 

 advertisement you can have. 



When it was found that grapes could be successfully grown on the 

 hill lands surrounding Council Bluffs, the number of vineyards increased 

 until the crop exceeded the demand of the local markets of both Council 

 Bluffs and Omaha. Then the growers were obliged to look for markets 

 beyond, and placed their fruit in the hands of commission men for dis- 

 tribution wherever a demand could be found, but the system was found 

 so unsatisfactory that the growers decided upon an organization of their 

 own, to avoid some of the troubles and disappointments which they experi- 

 enced under the system they had followed thus far. In January, 1893, 

 twenty-one of the principal growers organized what is known as the 

 Council Bluffs Grape Growers' Shipping Association, which has conducted 

 its business successfully ever since, whereby it has handled not only the 

 grapes but such other fruits as were produced by the members. The 

 company was incorporated and each shareholder of the stock was entitled 

 to participate in the dividends based upon his individual production. 

 The association now owns the building occupied to transact its business 

 and a large storage warehouse, and has an established credit. You 

 might as well ask the members of this association to dig up their vine- 

 yards as to abandon their association. The last statement of the Council 

 Bluffs association shows the distribution of nearly $100,000 among its 

 members, and growers are becoming better satisfied with its transactions 

 each year. Fruit growing can be made as profitable as any other occupa- 

 tion. The returns from the amount of labor and capital expended can 

 be made better and more certain than most any other business, but 

 between the production on the farm and the sale in the market there is a 

 gap which has caused losses and discontent to many hard-working and 

 painstaking fruit growers. My experience and observation lead me to 



