HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



the mirror up to nature and see how much alike most 

 men are after all. Here is a case in point : For two 

 years past the orange growers of Southern California 

 had not been satisfied with the returns received from 

 their crops, amounting to some 5,000 or 6,000 carloads 

 per year, which were sold mostly to or by so-called 

 commission men. So great was the dissatisfaction, 

 much of which was fully justified, that the growers 

 resolved that the crop now nearly marketed from 

 that State should be handled by themselves and 

 without the intervention of middle men. As a result 

 of this proper determination, a number of coopera- 

 tive fruit exchanges were formed to include nearly 

 every one of hundreds of orange growers throughout 

 Southern California. 



These several exchanges were united into a princi- 

 pal exchange under an able board of managers, and 

 the work of marketing the large orange crop was 

 commenced. It was announced that fruit sent out by 

 the exchanges would be honestly packed, properly 

 graded and branded, and that consumers everywhere 

 might expect good fruit at reasonable prices. Un- 

 fortunately a heavy freeze early in January greatly 

 damaged the crop and absolutely ruined at least a 

 third of it. Notwithstanding this well-known fact, 

 frozen and nearly worthless California oranges have 

 been in the Chicago and other markets by the hun- 

 dred boxes every day for the past four months under 

 the brand of "fancy," "choice," or otherwise, as the 

 case might be. This fruit was packed and branded 

 by growers, or under their direction and with their 

 knowledge. Hundreds of carloads of damaged fruit 

 have thus reached the markets of the country under 

 false representations, not by the commission men, 

 but by the growers themselves who combined, and 

 properly so, to put a stop to dishonest practices in 

 fruit marketing. 



This case is cited in no" spirit of hostility to the 

 movement on the part of growers to secure better 

 markets for their crops. On the contrary, they did 

 wholly right to denounce dishonesty wherever dis- 

 covered, and to organize to prevent it by force of 

 numbers but they should also have practiced hon- 

 esty themselves. 



The unfortunate and deplorable fact that they did 

 not as a body do this should not wholly discourage 

 those who, by looking deeper, will still see in coope- 

 ration the ultimate hope and success of the fruit in- 

 dustry. It serves at least one valuable purpose. It 

 must dispel the illusion that orange producers are 

 honest and that orange sellers are not. That is to 

 say, it will emphasize the fact well known to all 

 thinking men, that commercial integrity, or the want 

 of it, is not monopolized by any class of citizens. 

 This is an exceedingly valuable lesson, and until 



fully learned all along the line of transactions in farm 

 and orchard products, will continue to present ob- 

 stacles to the satisfactory buying and selling of such 

 commodities. 



THE IRRIGATION AGE has previously pointed out 

 the great difference between the prices received by 

 the grower for California dried fruits, for example,, 

 and those paid by the consumer. This difference 

 will generally be found to be entirely too great. 

 Somewhere between the producer and the consumer 

 there should be a lopping off of the prohibitory prices 

 which so greatly restrict consumption. For instance, 

 there is no good reason why California prunes of a 

 certain quality should be worth 25 cents per pound in 

 Chicago or New York, when the same goods can be 

 purchased by the million pounds in San Francisco or 

 San Jose at less than nine cents per pound. This is 

 the whole difficulty in a nutshell, and no possible re- 

 duction in the costs of production can ever fully 

 bridge this chasm. The consumer must not pay more 

 but less for his fruit supplies, while the grower has 

 already reached the bottom price at which he can 

 continue in the business. It is not the purpose of 

 this article to point out a specific remedy in detail. 

 It is a very broad question and cannot be settled off- 

 hand. But the basis of any action looking to a better 

 outcome in this direction is organization. Cooper- 

 ation, which guarantees strict honesty in all transac- 

 tions, as between the growers and the market, and 

 also demand the same from any and all selling agen- 

 cies employed is the first requisite. This must be 

 the foundation stone of any substantial edifice built up 

 in connection with prosperous fruit industries in this 

 country. With this firmly established in each fruit 

 district, the questions of local detail will be found to 

 readily adjust themselves. But the organizations 

 must be permanent, and not liable to go to pieces 

 whenever the whims or caprices of dissatisfied mem- 

 bers may demand. 



To be brief then, the only hope of permanent and 

 gratifying success among the great body of American 

 fruit-growers is compact organization and intelligent 

 and honest cooperation toward the desired end. This 

 done and adhered to through thick and thin, through 

 prosperity and disaster, will ultimately win the fight. 

 The American table must be supplied with choice fruit 

 grown in America, and it must and can be supplied 

 in unlimited quantity by prosperous orchardists at 

 reasonable prices, to the end that every family in the 

 land may daily lunch upon a dish of fine fresh or cured 

 fruit at the breakfast and dinner table. When this 

 happy day shall come, and it will come, and should 

 come early, THE AGE will hope to number among its 

 tens of thousands of readers the happiest, the most 

 intelligent, and the most prosperous of business men 

 the fruit-growers of the United States. 



