COOPERATION AMONG ONTARIO FRUIT GROWERS 



THE following article is the continuation 

 of the account, which started in the 

 December issue of The Horticulturist, of 

 the discussion on cooperation, held at the 

 recent convention of the Ontario Fruit 

 Growers' Association. Mr. D. Johnson, of 

 Forest, had been asked what price growers 

 in his section, who did not cooperate last 

 fall, received for their apples. 



Mr. Johnson : " Very few growers were 

 able to sell their fruit at any price, but those 

 who did sell realized 50 to 60 cents per bar- 

 rel for their firsts and nothing for their sec- 

 onds. Some only obtained 10 to 12 cents 

 per bag for No. i apples." 



Question : " What did you do with your 

 waste fruit?" 



Mr. Johnson : "It was sold to two 

 evaporator firms and we obtained 15 cents a 

 bag for the peelers and 5 cents for chops. 

 One of these evaporators is located at my 

 place and handles 100 bushels per day ; the 

 second one is at Forest and is managed by 

 a company which handles 500 or 600 bushels 

 a day." 



Question : " How much fruit did you 

 handle?" 



Mr. Johnson : " Aoout 38 or 40 carloads. 

 We also cooperated in securing our barrels. 

 We uought our own material and employed 

 a cooper. The barrels were of excellent 

 quality and cost us only 28 cents each. At 

 the last of the season, when our supply was 

 exhausted, we tried to buy some barrels 

 from coopers, and although we enquired 

 everywhere we were unable to obtain any 

 for less than 45 cents per barrel and they 

 were not nearly as good as those we had 

 made ourselves. 



" Some one. this afternoon asked how a 

 man could be expected to sink his own 

 identity when he joins an association of this 

 kind. The members of our association 

 sunk their identity and have never regretted 

 it. Occasionally some of the growers place 

 their initials on their barrels, but the initials 



never appear in the invoices or bills. We 

 are well pleased with this year's work and 

 look forward with confidence to next season. 

 One of the benefits that has resulted from 

 handling our fruit in this way has been 

 that the steamship and railway lines have 

 been anxious for our business and have 

 made material concessions to obtain it. Mr. 

 ^ Sherrington's suggestion that the growers 

 should have a central organization is a good 

 one. I have thought that if a central sta- 

 tion could be established, say at Toronto, so 

 that the various local associations could all 

 ship their fruit to it or arrange to have their 

 fruit handled in bulk it would be a much bet- 

 ter method than anything we have at pres- 

 ent." 



Question: " Did you pack in cases?" 



Mr. Johnson : " No. We were young 

 in the business and did not care to undertake 

 too much the first year. I am sorry now 

 that we did not ship some of our fruit in that 

 way." 



Question : " What was done with your 

 culls?" 



Answer : " We sent them to the evapora- 

 tor and the returns were utilized to defray 

 general expenses." 



Question : " That seems hard on the 

 man who had a lot of culls ?" 



Answer : " Yes, but we told such men 

 that it cost more to handle their fruit." 



COOPERATION IN ONTARIO COUNTY. 



A call was here made for Mr. Elmer Lick, 

 of Oshawa. 



■' There are." said Mr. Lick. " a great 

 many difficulties before fruit growers when 

 they try to cooperate. In our district the 

 buyers combined and coaxed the growers to 

 forsake the cooperative association, and we 

 found it difficult to carry out our plans. 

 There were many buyers this year and they 

 offered the farmers good prices." 



Question : " How much was offered ?" 



Mr. Lick : " As high as $i per barrel in 

 some cases, but in the end the growers were 



