BOOK SEVENTH, 



The Fruit Marketing Societies 

 of California.* 



CHAPTER I. 



THEIK CHARACTER AND OBJECT. 



WHILE the object of this volume is rather a study 

 of principles than a record of events, there are 

 some peculiarities attending the development of 

 cooperation in California which are well worth the study of 

 the student of social movements ; and as no comprehensive 

 description of the California societies, or of those similar to 

 them in other states, has ever been published, it seems desir- 

 able to include a brief sketch of the most prominent of them 

 here. 



It is obviously, as things go, an easier operation to buy 

 than to sell, and to save than to gain, for there is required less 

 expenditure of vigor, which, in the main, is the controlling 

 element in human performance. That which is easier for the 

 individual is also easier for an organization, and a French writer 

 on cooperation, therefore, very properly remarks, in speaking 

 of the French agricultural syndicates, which are, in the 

 main, cooperative purchasing societies, that, marketing being 

 the highest exercise of the art of cooperation, it is the last 

 function which he expects these syndicates to undertake. 



■ See Appendix E for list of societies. 

 (434) 



