NAPA AND CONTRA COSTA CLUBS. 79 



mento Club, to consider the propriety of an effective organization 

 throughout the State, for their mutual protection and advantage. 

 Respectfully submitted, by 



In the Napa Club, Mr. Nash spoke very earnestly to the 

 same subject. He said: 



The great trouble with farmers of all classes was, after hav 

 ing produced their crops, to get adequately paid for them. They 

 needed organization, as they had everything to contend with. The 

 cost of hired help, mechanics bills, and profits were extortionate. 

 They have to give what is asked, and take what is offered. The 

 costs of shipping eats up everything. What one thing can we raise 

 and make a profit ? Had spent some time with Mr. Lewellyn in 

 Alameda county. He had found there that the farmers and fruit 

 growers had combined and hired a steamboat to ship their produce. 

 They don t ship any more by railroad, which used to charge them 

 $1 50 per chest for small fruits. They now ship per steamer at 62 J 

 cents, at which the boat is making money, and weeds and dog fennel 

 are growing up around the depot. 



In the present state of things, we are making nothing and can 

 make nothing. It cost $1 per chest to pick my berries, and I have 

 seen plenty of strawberries sold this year at $2 and $3 per hundred 

 pounds. Everything is eaten up by expenses, leaving the farmers 

 nothing. Many of them cannot keep the sheriff outside their fences. 

 &quot;We must find out some plan of co-operation, such as they have in 

 some places at the East, and have co-operative stores and shops, for 

 our own protection. We may yet do something by a thorough and 

 general organization. 



In the Contra Costa Club, the President, Mr. Jones, said: 



In regard to co-operation, the most of the small farmers labored 

 under the difficulty of being obliged to hypothecate their crops, and 

 consequently were under the control of capitalists. We see that 

 capitalists are now controlling tonnage, and almost everything that 

 the farmer requires. He thought that if farmers were thoroughly 

 organized, they might control these matters. It would be a good 

 thing if farmers would unite and create a capital so as to be able to 

 relieve the small farmers in their time of need, and by this means 

 enable them to get their small farms in good condition, so that in a 

 few years they would be entirely independent of capitalists. 



Mr. Porter said he supposed the object of all farmers would be to 

 produce as much as possible themselves, such articles as they were 

 obliged to have, because the cost of transporting all comes out of the 

 farmer. There is no doubt that farmers might produce a great deal 

 more than they do. If a farmer puts all his land in wheat, it takes 

 up all his time; if he would put in less wheat and raise some of the 

 articles he is compelled to buy, he would save more money and be 

 better prepared to devote a portion of his time to something else. If 

 a judicious system of exchanges could be instituted, it would do away 



