CALIFORNIA CITRUS CULTURE. 103 



are usually from eighty to more than a hundred at each meeting. The 

 host may invite at pleasure, and if any member has company from 

 abroad he can take them to the meetings if he informs the host. This 

 would seem a great burden, but as it occurs only once in four years, it 

 is not grevious and once given it ensures thirty-two good times, big 

 eats, and rich mental feasts with no cost or labor. 



The above account will make it easy for one to write a constitution 

 and by-laws, under which to organize a successful club. 



The Claremont Club founded the local telephone company, with over 

 four thousand phones, helped form the County Insurance Association, 

 which saves immensely to its patrons and who now has over five 

 million dollars in policies. At the time of the forty-five clubs it was 

 their influence that secured for us our excellent fertilizer law in the face 

 of most vehement opposition. May we not hope to rival Michigan with 

 her hundreds of wide-awake clubs ? Nothing would foster the fruit 

 interests with more energy and certainty. 



THE CALIFORNIA FRUIT GROWERS' EXCHANGE. 



The California Fruit Growers' Exchange represents about sixty-five 

 hundred growers who have organized themselves into one hundred or 

 more local associations. Each association usually owns its own packing- 

 house, where the fruit of the members is assembled, pooled and prepared 

 for market under brands adopted for the different grades by tlie asso- 

 ciation. The association usually picks the fruit of the members. 



The associations in the different regions combine into one or more 

 district exchanges, which represent the associations in the business 

 operations common to each, and which sell the fruit through the agents 

 of the California Fruit Growers' Exchange, receiving the proceeds 

 therefor through the California Fruit Growers' Exchange, an incorpo- 

 rated agency formed by a representative of each of the seventeen district 

 exchanges. The California Fruit Growers' Exchange acts an as agent in 

 furnishing the facilities through which the fruit is placed in the different 

 markets by the growers through their sub-exchanges and sold, through 

 its own exclusive agents to the trade or by auction, and collects the pro- 

 ceeds and transmits them to the district exchanges, which in turn pay 

 the growers through the local associations. 



The central exchange, the district exchange and the association all 

 transact the business for the grower at actual cost. The central exchange 

 through its agents is in daily touch with the markets of America, 



