CHAPTER VIII 



COOPERATION IN THE HANDLING, DISTRIB- 

 UTING, AND SALE OF FRUIT 



THERE is a vital power behind the Western fruit-grow- 

 ers' associations that is to be found in no other coopera- 

 tive movement in the United States, possibly because they 

 have the greatest difficulties to overcome. The class 

 that most nearly approaches the fruit-grower is the grain- 

 grower of the Central West, who was forced to organize the 

 farmers' elevators for protection against a predatory grain- 

 marketing system. Some cooperative creameries have 

 been formed as a business necessity, but more often 

 through the effort of the agents for creamery supplies. 

 These associations, like the stallion company system, have 

 been organized, not by the farmers, but by those who de- 

 sire to sell the appliances in which they are interested. 

 The fruit-growers' associations have been formed in order 

 that the capital invested in the industry might be pro- 

 tected. The growers could not consign their products to 

 commission merchants two thousand miles or more away ; 

 they could not depend on local or distant buyers to pay a 

 fair price for the fruit ; as individuals they could not deal 

 effectively with the railroads or with the courts. They 

 had to organize as a matter of necessity. In no other 

 way could their industries be developed. 



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