BETTER FRUIT 



AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN THE INTEREST OF MODERN, PROGRESSIVE FRUIT GROWING AND MARKETING 



Call for Organization Northwest Fruit Growers' Council 



I< pursuance of the authority con- 

 ferred by the Fruit Growers' Con- 

 vention at Seattle, January 22-23, 

 the Northwest By-Products Board is- 

 sues the foHowing call, for the con- 

 ducting of such proceedings as will 

 enable all the growers in all the dis- 

 tricts to be adequately represent'^d at 

 the meeting to be held in the Commer- 

 cial Club at Tacoma, Wash., at 9:30 

 a. m. Monday, February 15: 



The purpose of this meeting shall 

 be to create a growers' council, which 

 shall have general control of the mar- 

 keting of the fruit of the States of 

 Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Mon- 

 tana. This control shall be exercised 

 through a governing board of three 

 or five, or such number as shall be 

 determined, but the number of such 

 board should be, in the interest of 

 efficiency and expense, made as small 

 as possible; the members of such gov- 

 erning board to be selected by the 

 growers' council as a whole. The par- 

 ticular functions of this governing 

 board shall be to exercise a supervis- 

 ion over the marketing of the fruit 

 crop in the manner outlined by the at- 

 tached memorandum signed by organi- 

 zations and agencies now handling in 

 excess of 80 per cent of the total ton- 

 nage of this territory. 



The growers' council and the gov- 

 erning board shall exercise such other 

 and additional i)owers as may be nec- 

 essary to establish a firm market price 

 for fruit, and to do such things as 

 shall be required to prevent the de- 

 moralization of the market, and also 

 render such further service and as- 

 sume such functions as may be deemed 

 advisable to protect the best interests 

 of the growers. Among these special 

 functions that have been suggested for 

 later consideration are the following: 

 Reducing the cost of marketing; estab- 

 lishing a uniform grade and pack in 

 effect throughout the Northwest; 

 adopting such methods of marketing 

 and advertising as may greatly expand 

 the outlet for our Northwest fruits. 

 Tiie growers' council, as a whole, shall 

 exercise general supervision of all the 

 work of the governing board, but to 

 gain effieicnev and save expense, the 

 members of the growers' council in 

 each district sliould organize and elect 

 district officers, and the various chair- 

 men should make up a general super- 

 visory board to be called info consul- 

 tation by the governing board when 

 necessary. 



The first growers' council shall be 

 composed of three members at large 

 and one additional member for each 

 2.')0 cars or fraction thereof marketed 

 from each of Ihe following disli'icts: 



(1) Hood River, White Salmon and 

 adjacent shipping points; (2) Walla 

 Walla, Milton, Dayton, Waitsburg and 

 adjacent points; (3) all of Southern 

 Idaho and Southeastern Oregon; (4) 

 Spokane, Moscow, Garfield, Lewiston 

 and adjacent points; (5) Wenatchee, 

 Cashmere and all up-river points; (6) 

 the entire Yakima Valley from Kenne- 

 wick up; (7) Rogue River and West- 

 ern Oregon; (8) the State of Mon- 

 tana. 



For the purpose of establishing the 

 number of such members, each dis- 

 trict is asked to file with its creden- 

 tials, certificates, signed by the rail- 

 ways serving that territory, or by the 

 horticultural inspector in charge of 



Features of this Issue 



CALL FOR FRUIT GROWERS' 

 COUNCIL 



PLAN PROPOSKD BY NORTH PACIFIC 

 FRUIT DISTRIBUTORS 



PLAN PROPOSEiD BY NORTHWEST 

 FRUIT EXCHANGE 



PLAN AS UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED 



BY FRUIT GROWERS' COLTNCIL 



OF PACIFIC NORTHWEST 



HARMONY AMONG MARKETING 



CONCERNS 



REJPORT OF HORTICULTURAL 



INSPECTOR RHODES OF THE STATE 



OF WASHINGTON 



that district, or by such other author- 

 ity, or authorities, as shall be gen- 

 erally recognized, setting forth the ex- 

 act number of cars of commercial fruit 

 produced in that district in the season 

 of 1914. This arbitrary establishing 

 of districts, and of the basis of re])re- 

 sentation, was made by the convention 

 for the purpose of starting the organ- 

 ization, and changes will liave to be 

 made as found necessary. The powers 

 of the growers' council, and the term 

 of office of those elected at this time, 

 will be determined in the permanent 

 organization as perfected at the Ta- 

 coma meeting, but the members of the 

 growers' council as now elected should 

 serve for a term of approximately one 

 year, and through the season of 191,"). 

 Any person owning and operating a 

 commercial orcliard in the district 

 from which he is chosen shall be en- 

 titled to a seat in the growers' coun- 

 cil. Commercial orchard shall be con- 

 strued to mean an orcliard now pro- 

 ducing or tliat soon will be producing 



fruit for shipment in a commercial 

 way. 



It is the judgment of your commit- 

 tee that the growers of each individual 

 district should determine the method 

 to be followed in selecting representa- 

 tion in this first fruit growers' council, 

 but we would strongly recommend that 

 a thoroughly representative method of 

 selection be prepared in order that all 

 of the growers in every part of each 

 district may be interested, and may 

 feel that they are represented in the 

 membership of the council as selected. 

 With that thought in mind, we suggest 

 the following plan of procedure in 

 each district : That a meeting of those 

 in attendance at the Seattle convention 

 be held immediately for the purpose of 

 discussing the actions of that conven- 

 tion and to go over the terms of this 

 call. That such meeting should select 

 an organization committee for the pur- 

 pose of issuing the call and supervis- 

 ing the proceedings to choose the dis- 

 trict meniibers of the growers' council. 



On a day sufficiently far in the fu- 

 ture to permit of the circulation of 

 full notice, a caucus should be called 

 at each shipping point in the district 

 to be participated in by all owners 

 of orchards shipping through, or liv- 

 ing tributary to that point. These 

 growers in caucus assembled should 

 select such number of delegates as 

 they will be entitled to name on a 

 basis of one delegate to each 20 or 25 

 cars shipped, or such otlier basis as 

 may be established. On the date 

 named by the organization committee a 

 general district convention of all such 

 local delegates should be held as some 

 central point in the district for the 

 purpose of electing the number of 

 members in the growers' council to 

 which that district is entitled. In 

 holding such caucuses, or such con- 

 ventions, it is important that every in- 

 terest among the growers be given ,". 

 full opportunity to be lieard and to be 

 represented. This movement can be a 

 success only as a movement of all the 

 growers. 



The memorandum adopted at the Se- 

 attle convention especially provides 

 that representation be given to the 

 minority among the growers. In our 

 judgment, this is superficial, as this is 

 a movement for all of the growers to 

 participate in, and the interest of ev- 

 ery grower must be equitably repre- 

 sented, large as well as small. Every 

 important group or association of 

 growers must feel satisfied with their 

 representation. No organization or 

 groui) of men can gain any personal 

 a<lvantage by controlling the growers' 

 council. To succeed in doing so would 



