314 Fruit-growing in Arid Regions 



if they had to put up the money for the fruit, they would 

 be very careful that an oversupply did not obtain. This 

 condition can be controlled by the growers, and if every 

 fruit-growing locality would create and properly conduct 

 an association on a square and modern basis, I fully believe 

 that returns could be very materially increased. 



" This would require an outlay of some expense to the 

 growers, but at the same time would really be an invest- 

 ment. If you knew that by purchasing a certain kind of 

 machine for twenty-five dollars you could, by proper 

 handling, decrease your orchard expenses one hundred 

 dollars a year, would you hesitate to make the purchase ? 

 Well, as an association is a machine, each grower a part 

 of that machine, and if kept in good running condition 

 and handled by a man who knows how, it will produce 

 results ; therefore I claim that improper marketing was 

 one of the greatest factors affecting the price of fruit 

 in 1908. 



" During the past year the larger fruit-producing sec- 

 tions were confronted with the proposition of marketing 

 the largest crop ever produced. Georgia, that immense 

 producer of peaches, was compelled to handle, with her 

 crude and unsystematized methods, the largest crop in her 

 history, with the result that out of the five thousand car- 

 loads, about two thousand were shipped to one market, 

 and the results to the growers on account of poor distri- 

 bution were disastrous. California produced nearly twice 

 as many cars of fruit as were shipped in 1907, and many 

 other fruit districts were ill prepared to properly handle 

 the quantity produced. 



" The deciduous fruit season which has just closed will 

 go down in history as the heaviest ever known, yet it is 

 my opinion that the quantity was not the prime cause 

 of low prices, as I believe under normal conditions and 

 proper distribution, with careful attention to high quality, 

 an equal production could be placed in the hands of con- 

 sumers at reasonably good prices and profit to the growers. 



