488 CALIFORNIA FRUIT SOCIETIES. 



due to the fact that tlie Persian wahiut, while it grows luxuri- 

 autly in most parts of California, has thus far been found 

 commercially profitable only in limited areas in a few of the 

 southern coast counties, with the result that the number of 

 growers is small, and the work of organization comparatively 

 easy. Organization, however, did not come at once. In 1887 

 about twenty walnut-growers of Los Angeles County organized 

 the Los Nietos and Ranchita Walnut-growers' Association, 

 This, for a long time, was the only walnut-growers' society, but 

 with the increase of the product, and increasing competition 

 with each other, other associations w^ere gradually formed, 

 until they now number seven, and include nearly all the 

 growers. They have, as yet, formed no central organization 

 except an informal one of representatives of each society, 

 which meets as occasion requires, to fix the prices of the crops 

 to which each association adheres. The associations control 

 the output of California walnuts, and fix prices, subject to the 

 competition of the French crop. The sales of this society, in 

 1898, were over $400,000. The original society now numbers 

 two hundred twenty growers, and, in 1898, shipped over 

 two hundred car-loads of walnuts. 



