494 CALIFORNIA FRUIT SOCIETIES. 



''the small growers" unite, for the purpose of steadying the 

 market, but declined to compromise themselves in regard to it 

 in any way, and, as a rule, to contribute to its support. 

 There were, of course, exceptions. The smaller growers very 

 generally sustained the movement with a good deal of enthu- 

 siasm until it reached the point of footing the bills; there they 

 drew the line. When local associations were started, the 

 growers at once became absorbed in providing for their own 

 local interests, and would do nothing for the state Exchange.* 

 The manager w^as necessarily compelled to originate and lay 

 out the work, covering all parts of the state, attend to the 

 correspondence, address meetings, write for the press, prepare 

 a weekly bulletin of information, aid in the formation of local 

 associations, and canvass for stock with which to pay the bills. 

 With his experience in obtaining funds for the Santa Clara 

 Exchange, he was of the opinion, and so advised the directors, 

 that, with the whole state to draw from, he could readily 

 secure the small sum needed for expenses, by the sale of stock 

 upon which twenty-five per cent of the par value was paid in, 

 and on the strength of his statement the directors borrowed a 

 few hundred dollars with which to start work. The manager 

 found himself wholly mistaken. In the Santa Clara case 

 one hundred twenty-nine days of paid service secured four 

 hundred stock subscriptions, averaging about $45 each, or a 

 little over three subscribers per day, and $135. To produce 

 those four hundred subscriptions, however, in addition to the 

 paid service, there was a very much greater amount of volun- 

 teer service, by directors and others; relying upon a similar 

 amount of volunteer assistance, and upon the expressed 

 interest of the members of the special convention which 

 created the Exchange, and of many other prominent growers, 

 the manager said that he could doubtless, in addition to his 



*In consequence of this failure of local organizations to recognize that they 

 needed leadership, and a bond to unite them with each other, and, in any 

 event their unwillingness to pay for it, or even to return what had been 

 expended for them, nearly all the associations thus formed soon died, and none 

 ever became influential. The growth had been forced, and they could not live 

 without careful cultivation. 



