114 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



May, 1908 



Co-Operation in California 



D. Johnson, 



ARRIVING in Southern California 

 about the middle of January, I was 

 deliirhted to find myself in a climate 

 much like our September, with a tempera- 

 ture from 75 to' 80, the air full of the per- 

 fume of flowers and songs of birds, and the 

 proves loaded with fruit. One could not but 

 wonder at the energy of the people in trans- 

 forming the sage brush districts into the 

 great plantations, in he course of 12 or 15 

 years. In California water is king. By the 

 application of water to the desert wastes, 

 and by co-operative methods of marketing, 

 the planters have been able to make them- 

 selves rich. 



Irrigating is a study in itself, so that I 

 will not enter into it now, but in passing, 

 would say that I believe it can and will be 

 used with great success in Ontario, especi- 

 ally in the production of small fruit. Almost 

 every year we find the berry growers long- 

 ing and looking for rain during the ripen- 

 ing period that so often does not come with 

 the result that the crop does not turn out 

 half what it would have produced had there 



* Tlic author of this article spent the pa.'st winter 

 with fruit growers in California. Oregon and British 

 Columbia, studying their sy.qteni.s of production and 

 marlietiug. In subsequent issues of Thk Canadian 

 Horticulturist we hope to publish other pointers 

 gleaned from the lessons learned. 



Forest, Ontario 



the coming season we expect to test it here 

 with every hope of success. 



The co-operative sysem of Southern Cali- 

 fornia has had its ups and downs. During 

 the first few years of its existence it had 

 many staggering blows, but it has trium- 

 phed over them all and has resulted in 

 making orange and lemon growing a most 

 profitable industry, whereas, only a few 

 years ago, it was one of the most unprofit- 

 able. The years i8q2 and '93 were perhaps 

 the" most disastrous years on record when 

 the small growers struggled individually, 

 each competing one against the other. All 

 shipping at random to the same markets, 

 resulted in account sales in red ink being 

 received in great numbers. In rnany cases 

 growers not only furnished their entire crop 

 for nothing but were often forced to pay 

 freight charges which the gross sales of the 

 fruit did not cover. 



METHODS OF FRUIT EXCHANGE 



Various systems of marketing were tried 

 with more or less success until finally the 

 California Fruit Growers' Exchange (head 

 office, Los Angeles), was organized for 

 the purpose of marketing the fruit through 

 one agency. In plain words, this Excbange 

 is a huge commission firm appointed and 

 controlled by the fruit growers themselves 



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and handles no fruit but that grown or 

 bought by its members. 



The first steps of organization is the 

 forming of local associations which own 

 their own packing houses and grade and 

 pack their own fruit under their own brand. 

 The manager of the local association is in 

 constant touch by telephone with the head 

 office, which gives orders when and where 

 to ship the fruit. 



The exchange system cuts out all middle 

 men, employ their own salesmen on salary 

 and allot certain districts to each man. Over 

 these salesmen are two general agents with 

 headquarters at Chicago and Omaha where 

 they keep a full bureau or information, 

 through which each local acent receives 

 each day detailed information as to sales 

 of exchange fruit in other markets the pre- 

 vious day. If any local agent finds that 

 he cannot maintain the prices that are being 

 made in other cities he wires the head office 

 in Los Angeles, which immediately deverts 

 shipments from that market until the trade 

 is restored to normal a,gain. 



All this seems to be a great expense, 

 but, when we take into consideration the 

 enormous! amount of business done, we 

 find that the cost is about half of that 

 charged by an ordinary commission firm. 

 With an even distribution of the fruit, the 

 markets are maintained and each place re- 

 ceives its proper proportion of fruit. The 

 local associations pool their returns every 

 two weeks and pay according to grade. 



CO-OPERATION MEANS MONEY 



The results of the cooperative system in 

 California is that .fruit growing has been 

 made a most profitable business. An or- 

 ange orchard of 10 acres near Riverside was 

 sold while I was there for $;io,ooo, or $-5,000 

 an acre. The crop this year would pay 

 $8,000 of that. A small grove of iM acres 

 netted $2,920 last year, and another grove 

 of 40 acres netted $26,000. The secretary 

 of an association near Los Angeles told me 

 that last year the proprietor of a 12-acre 

 strawberrv patch received $24,000 for his 

 crop. This seems hard to believe, but, 

 when we take into consideration their ir- 

 rigating, fertilizing and marketing systems 

 it is not surprising. 



California, like Ontario, has found in its 

 cooperative work much discouragement by 

 growers shioping in and out of the asso- 

 ciations, and plavinir between the exchanges 

 and dealers in the hopes of making better 

 _ returns for themselves, with the result that 

 ' some of the local associations have given 

 up, and dealers, taking advantage of this, 

 pav the growers what thev like. 



If the California Fruit Growers' Ex- 

 change were to withdraw from the trade, 

 the conditions which existed before its or- 

 ganization would prevail, and result in 

 growers becoming discouraged, neglecting 

 their groves, just as the majority of Ontario 

 apple growers do now and declare that 

 there is no money in fruit growing, which 

 would be true if there was no marketing 

 system. 



At a meeting of the Toronto branch of the 

 Ontario Vegetable Growers' Association 

 held early in April Dr. Jas. Fletcher, of Ot- 

 tawa, gave a valuable talk on "Insect 

 Pests on Vegetable Crops, and How to Com 

 bat Them." 



An exceptionally well prepared booklet 

 entitled, "The Potato Crop in Canada," has 

 just been published by the Dominion Agri 

 cultural Offices of the Potash Syndicate, 

 Temple Buiklings, Toronto. To review all 

 all its good features would necessitate the 

 publication of the entire article, it is so 

 filled with valuable information. A copy 

 may be had free by writing to the firm. 



•*i 



