THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



June, 19 



Cooperative Work in the Annapolis Valley 



A. E. Adams, of the United Fruit Companies, Ltd., Berwick, N.S. 



YOU are all familiar with th^- forma- 

 tion of the Cooperative Fruit Com- 

 panies in the Annapolis Valley of 

 Nova Scotia, and are to a Rreater 

 or lesser extent familiar with their his- 

 tory. It is a curious fact that the 

 originators of the movement here knew lit- 

 tl» or nothing of the movement elsewhere, 

 and shaped their course purely by what 

 they considered the immediate necessity of 

 the moment. 



Our lending fruit growers felt and knew 

 that there was something radically wrong 

 with the method in which the products of 

 their orchards were being handled. They 

 knew that individuals speculating with their 

 fruit were making money much faster than 

 was the producer. 



Thev had the right idea, the same as 

 that of the pioneers of the movement across 

 the water, namely that profit derived from 

 apples should go to the producer of the 

 apples. That is the principle under which 

 we are working to-day. Unlike Denmark, 

 Nova Scotia started on the marketing end 

 of cooperation first and having got that 

 fairly under way is now giving her atten- 

 tion to cooperative buying, but whichever 

 end is handled first the result is and must 

 be the same. Cooperation is bound to be 

 a success wherever and to whatever pro- 

 blem it is applied, the only thing necessary 

 is that all members thoroughly understand 

 the great principle for which they are 

 working. 



FUP.TMK" C'^r'T'KR VTION NKrF.SStT.\Tl!D 



When, owing to the success that had at- 

 tended the initial efforts of the fruit com- 

 panies, others had been formed, it was re- 

 alized that through the multiplicity of com- 

 panies they were defeating their own ends, 

 inasmuch as they were competing the one 

 with the other to market their products, 

 and the wily speculators were pitting one 

 company against the other, and thus se- 

 curing the apples almost as cheaply as 

 ever. On account of this multiplicity of 

 companies they were unable to accomplish 

 that which they set out to do. namelv. 

 "bring producer and consumer closer to- 

 gether," they were as it were so many 

 units whose power for good was ineffectual 

 on account of their lack of central organi- 

 zation. Instead of working together they 

 were fighting against one another. At last 

 their leaders realized : 



"Cooperation — not strife — 



Is the Divine law of life." 

 And proceeded to incorporate all the com- 

 panies into one central association, obtain- 

 ing a special charter from the provincial 

 government for that purpose. Thus did 

 The United Fruit Companies of Nova 

 Scotia, Limited, come into existence. 



My paper would be incomplete without 

 naming John N. Chute the father of coop- 

 eration in Nova Scotia. John Donaldson, 

 S. C. Parker, your president, and A. E. 

 MacMahon, who by their zeal and untir- 

 ing efforts without reward, alone made 

 this important centralization possible. 



THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED 



Possiblv it is un-ccessary for me to 

 give in detail the splendid work accom- 

 plished by the Central during its brief ex- 

 istence. In the first year before it was 

 incorporated, realizing that the record crop 

 with which the Valley was blessed' would 

 never be harve sted with the help at hand, 



'ilxtreiot from an addreos deliver^ bei'ore 

 the last annual convention of the Nova Sjotia 

 fruit Growers' Associatiuu. 



it brought in some four hundred helpers, 

 and thus saved the situation for many a 

 grower. 



The same year, realizing that the steam- 

 ship companies had utterly failed to pro- 

 vide sufficient transportation for the tre- 

 mendous crop and that thousands of bar- 

 rels of soft vnrieties were lying at Halifax 

 sweltering in the sun, it made arrangements 

 with the Intercolonial Railway (the Peo- 

 ples's railway) and sent train load after 

 train load up to Montreal to load in the 

 fast mail boats. 



It follow 'd this up by chartering four 

 great steamships of the Warren Line and 

 lifted forty thousand barrels of fruit which 

 would otherwise have rotted. This action 

 forced one of the greatest steamship com- 

 panies in the world to buy out the Warren 

 Line, and has thus secured for the fruit 

 urrowers of the Valley a service of sDlcndid 

 fast steamships to carry the fall fruit. It 

 thus saved all growers, whether cooperators 

 or not, thousands of dollars. 



In the same year the company opened 

 up the western markets for our famous 

 Gravensteins, and thus gave a new lease 

 of life ta that exrel!c>nt apple. It also se- 

 cured for the Valley a supply of specially 

 lined cars almost equal to refrigerators by 

 which every grower in the Valley bene- 

 fits during the cold weather. In spite of 

 th" onnosifioi in its own membershirt it 

 reduced the price of fertilizer in the Valley 

 by five dollars or six dollars a ton. 



OOOPER.-VTIVB MARKETING 



Before starting to explain the ladvan- 

 tages of cooperative marketing I would like 

 to impress on you one aspect of coopera- 

 tion that I am afraid is not properly un- 

 derstood by our fruit growers. .1 feel this 

 lack of knowledge among our membership 

 and even I am sorry to say, among the di- 

 rectorate, hence my excuse for dealing with 

 it here. 



Very few of the members seem to realize 

 that thpv are themselves The United Fruit 

 Companies, they speak of letting the Cen- 

 tral have their fruit as though the Central 

 were some speculating firm buying their 

 apples. They speak of buying their feed 

 and flour, their fertilizer and seeds, from 

 the Central if the price is right, all of 

 which is evidence that they do not under- 

 stand the situation. 



The United Fruit Companies do not 

 sell an ounce of anything to any member , 

 they simply distribute what the members 

 have authorized them to buy for them. It 

 is exactly similar to the case of the Eng- 

 lish cooperator and his pair of boots that 

 I cited a while back. 



When that humble artisan goes to the 

 store and gets his boots he pays a sum ol 

 money spot cash for them which is not .1 

 cent less than he could get a similar pair 

 for from the store next door. He does not 

 concern himself with the price; all he both- 

 ers about is the quality. He wants a cer- 

 tain kind and a certain quality, and gets 

 it ; the price is immaterial. Why ? Be- 

 cause he knows that at the end of the sea- 

 son all the profit made on those boots, after 

 necesary expenses are deducted, will be 

 refunded to him in his dividend. 



Had this cooperator and his fellows told 

 the manager of their store that they could 

 get a similar pair of boots next door for 

 the same money and had got them, would 

 the cooperative movement have developed 

 as it has in England? Certainly not. It 



is simply the abiding faith of these 

 operators in the ability of their servai 

 the Central, to ultimately do better 

 them than they can themselves, their ■ 

 lute loyalty to their fellows, that ha^ 

 success possible. 



Efforts are constantly being made 

 England to get cooperators to be d'-'- 

 to their fellows by offering them sna- 

 these cooperators so thoroughly, und' 

 the great principles of their movemi 

 all these efforts are futile. 



SIMILAR BFPORT8 HBRE 



Yet here in the Annapolis Valley 

 pany manager will write to Cemtral 

 has been instructed to buy the yeai 

 tilizer by tl^at actual company, ^ 

 "Please quote your prices and if li: 

 members will probably buy." The\ 

 seem to realize- that we have alrea 

 owed th,eir instructions and have ■ 

 their fertilizers for them, and havi 

 all arrangements to, in due time, • 

 ute it. 



They don't seem to realize that i 

 local agent has given them what thr 

 sider a tempting price, it is only done 

 fight their own society, only done in 

 endeavor to kill their own business. 



They don't seem to realize that if fei 

 izer agents are quoting low prices it 

 only the fact of their own action in 

 operating in buying, that has forced 1 

 fertilizer agent to bring his price down. 



They don't seem to realize that t 

 themselves can through their own tren 

 dous buying power, obtain their supp 

 lower than any that can be supplied 

 iniddlemen. 



They don't seem to realize that cen 

 firms are prepared to sink a large sum 

 money to supply goods at a price as \o\ 

 the Central's if by doing so they can ( 

 discredit and disrupt- this coopera 

 movement. 



Cooperators must be loyal to themse! 

 if the great benefits of cooperation art 

 continue. 



I know of actual cases that I can pi 

 by documentary evidence, of wholesale fi 

 right here in the Valley, supplying wl 

 carloads of fertilizer at over a dollar a 

 less than it cost them in order to k 

 certain companies out of the central, 

 even then did not get as low as centr 

 price. I hope that all cooperators 

 think of that aspect of cooperation, and 

 derstand the true import of it. 



Recent Bulletins M 



Circulars and bulletins that have reac 

 The Canadian Horticulturist recently, 

 elude the following : 



"Ten Years' Profits from an Apple 

 chard," is the title of Bulletin No. 376. 

 U. P. Hebrick, of the New York .\gri 

 tural Experiment Station, Geneva, N. 

 This bulletin contains valuable infor 

 tion relating to the cost of tillage, grow 

 of cover crops, pruning, spraying, harv 

 ing, as well as the average profits of ar 

 chard. 



-Another valuable bulletin by the s 

 author and station is one entitled "Till 

 and Sod Mulch in the Hitchings Orcha; 

 This is bulletin No. 375. This bulletin 

 most instructive one, is well illustrated 

 should be applied for by all growers ir 

 ested in the subject. 



The New Hampshire Experiment Stat 

 Durham, N.H., has issued Bulletin 168 

 J. H. Gourley, entitled "The Effects of 

 tilizers m a Cultivated Orchard." 



