492 CALIFORNIA FRUIT SOCIETIES. 



properly authorize the prosecution of the work. The greatest 

 trouble with cooperative societies operating over large areas 

 is likely to be inefficiency, of which one of the chief causes is 

 the wide scattering of directors, growing out of the insistence 

 upon geographical distribution. Cooperators will not consent 

 to intrust the direction to a few capable men so situated as to 

 be able to meet often with little or no expense, and the cost of 

 frequent meetings of widely-scattered directors is beyond the 

 means of a new organization. 



In connection with selling the stock of the state Exchange, 

 the manager devoted his time to the promotion of local 

 organizations of growers, which should be the foundation 

 upon which the Exchange should rest. It was evident, as the 

 experience of the California Fruit Union had shown, that no 

 central organization could deal, with advantage, with the 

 thousands of individual growers, scattered over wide areas ; 

 before uniting them in any state organization, it was essential 

 that local societies should be formed. It was also evident that 

 tlie "natural method of growth would be to await the forma- 

 tion of the local societies, which should by natural attraction 

 come together in a state Exchange, supported and controlled 

 by them as a common head. But, on the other hand, there 

 were very few local societies in existence, and those were not 

 formed on any common plan; nor had they any acquaint- 

 ance with each otlier, or any expressed disposition to unite; 

 and there was no likelihood that, except as the result of an 

 organized campaign of education, their number would very 

 rapidly increase; it was also evident that, after their organiza- 

 tion, they must pass through a period of unprofitable com- 

 petition with each other, before developing any spontaneous 

 disposition to unite. This would put off the period of state 

 organization so far into the future as to promise no relief 

 except at the end of a long and exhausting struggle, involving 

 serious injury to the fruit industries of the state and the 

 many other interests dependent upon it. The example of the 

 raisin industry showed the evil of delaying organization until 

 growers had no money wherewith to organize, and it was 

 determined to make a serious attempt to forestall disaster by 



