CO-OPERATION AMONG FRUIT GROWERS. 



23 



It organized five years ago with only 15 mem- 

 bers, but now controls 500 acres of small fruits. 

 The first year the sales of $1,000 were made at 

 a cost of 7 per cent, of gross receipts ; 1902, 

 sales of $45,500 were made at a cost of 2.8 per 

 cent. The able secretary of this association 

 says : 



" Much depends on your 



General Manager. 



He must be a man that knows good fruit, a good 

 bookkeeper, understand law, hustler, and in the 

 busy season work fro m5 a. m. to 9 or 12 at 

 night. We have three helpers in oflfice as sales- 

 men, besides two or three helpers two or thr ^e 

 hours every evening and handle 200 to 1,000 cases 

 at evening, besides work in the daytime. The 

 manager has full charge of fruit, filling all or- 

 ders and shipping to best merchants. We get 

 orders from 75 to 100 different parties daily in 

 the rush. General manager collects all monsy 

 and turns it over to the bank. General min- 

 ager writes checks, and not the treasurer. 



Payments are made once a week to grower>=, 

 less 10 per cent of money collected and less 

 charges on express account. Two years ago 

 we did not lose a dollar out of $25,000, but last 

 year lost $60 by one consignment, and may g'^t 

 20 per cent, of that yet. We get special low- 

 rates on express by railroads. Stock is $200 

 per share for a life member. A fruit growers' 

 association at San Jose, Cal., like ours, sells 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth every 

 year of prunes and dried fruit. Trainloads are 

 sometimes shipped direct to New York, Boston 

 and Europe. They get 3 cents per pound for 

 prunes, when before they organized they got 1 

 to 1% cents. One grower sold $10,000 worth o^ 

 prunes on the trees last year. 



" Such an organization, if a success, makes a 

 great saving. The first two years we sent out 

 our general manager, who was out two or thr-^e 

 weeks before the berry season to solicit orders 

 and to introduce the association to the trade. 

 Since that our business increased so there is no 

 need to send him out. The fruit advertised 

 itself. We are well located, 18 or 20 miles from 

 Minneapolis and St. Paul, with over 400,000 

 population. Dispose of surplus fruit if some is 

 too soft to ship. 



In general peach growers in the eastern states 

 are very careless, almost indifferent as to the 

 manner of shipping fruit to market, and the re- 

 sult is that very often a superior quality of fruit 

 does not bring as good prices is inferior fruit 

 put up with special pains to make it attractive. 

 The baskets in general use in the eastern states 

 are too large for retail trade. The best grades 



of peaches should never be sent to market In 

 large baskets, but each peach should be wrap- 

 ped separately and sent with as much care as 

 eggs, if the best prices are desired. For the 

 canning size and the wholesale trade, the Dela- 

 ware basket is undoubtedly one of the most 

 convenient forms for shipment. Inferior fruit 

 should be kept at home and dried or fed to the 

 pigs. The unprofitable handling of a large part 

 of such fruit might be avoided by thinning. 



In years of abundance slumps in the market 

 are caused not so much by over p^oducti^)n as 

 to inferior distribution. 



The Coming Need 



in the eastern states is for a system of distribu- 

 tion which will prevent gluts in the market. A.t 

 the very time when these slumps occur in New 

 York and other large centers, hundreds of 

 smaller towns in the interior cannot procure 

 peaches at any price. Dr. Brigham stated that 

 he had often paid 5 cents each for quite ordi- 

 nary peaches in interior towns in New York and 

 Pennsylvania and further west when the finest 

 peaches could scarcely be given away in New 

 York and Philadelphia. A well organized sys- 

 tem of distribution is a problem which pomo- 

 logical societies, boards of agriculture and other 

 associations should carefully consider. 

 Co-operation is the 



Keynote of Success. 



Indeed, without hearty co-operation and com- 

 pact organization little or nothing can be ac- 

 complished, and yet to secure and maintain such 

 organization presents the chief difficulty. Home 

 consumption is another way to avoid gluts in 

 •the market; also the judicious use of canning 

 and drying houses. Without co-operation and 

 organization the marketing of fruit is largely a 

 gamble dependent upon luck. 



To form a successful organization for mar- 

 keting, all that is needed is for the fruit growers 

 to agree upon the essential principles. Make 

 an agreement and stick to it. If you must 

 quarrel, select someone outside of the organiza- 

 tion to quarrel with. Be sure to pick out the 



Right Man for Manager, 



and do not make a man manager just because 

 he wants a job. Get some one you know and 

 have confidence in, a man who has made a suc- 

 cess in business, and pay him his price. Fruit 

 growers and farmers will eventually find that 

 they must organize, or be driven to the wall ; 

 for single handed, they cannot hope to cope with 

 the powerful business and financial combina- 

 tions which they encounter to-day on all sides. 



