Cooperation in the Purchase of Supplies 257 



operates two general departments, one a manufacturing 

 department and the other a material supply division. In 

 the former department it leases timber lands, operates 

 mills, and manufactures box material used in the ship- 

 ment of fruit ; in the latter, it furnishes supplies used in 

 the packing-houses and in the orchards. The supplies 

 which it manufactures are furnished at the cost of the 

 material and of manufacture, which includes charges for 

 depreciation and maintenance of the manufacturing de- 

 partment, plus six per cent, on the assets and capital de- 

 voted to or invested in the department. The supplies 

 used in the orchards are sold to the members at the cost 

 of the supplies. 



In 1911 this fruit-growers' company delivered more than 

 twelve million boxes to its members, and three hundred 

 and forty-seven thousand dollars' worth of orchard and 

 other packing-house supplies. These materials repre- 

 sented five thousand individual orders and a net saving 

 to the growers on the material other than the box shook 

 of at least eighty thousand dollars. In the same year it 

 sold $105,890 worth of fertilizer, imported six hundred 

 tons of vetch seed for cover crops, bought twenty-eight 

 carloads of nails or approximately twelve thousand kegs 

 for use in the packing-houses, supplied ten million box 

 labels and two billion fruit wrappers, or approximately 

 one hundred and fifty carloads of tissue paper. In con- 

 nection with the manufacture of box material it cut fifteen 

 million feet of lumber, one-half of which was used in box 

 manufacture and the remainder was sold in the open 

 market. 



