SOITHEKN CALIKOKMA ( ITKLS EXCHANGES. 509 



In March, 1893, a mass meeting of orange-growers was 

 called to meet at Colton, during the progress of a citrus fair 

 at that place; the attendance was not large but the interest 

 manifested by those present warranted an adjournment for a 

 week in the expectation of a larger number. At the adjourned 

 meeting a clear-lieaded gentleman from Riverside, who had 

 been educated for some years in the experience of the 

 Pachappa and Riverside Associations, of the first of which, 

 at least, he was a member, outlined a plan of operations by 

 which, as he believed, the growers could be united, and their 

 crop marketed at less expense than had been usual, and with 

 far better results. Substantially it was to be an orange 

 Trust,* designed to embrace all producers, and to market the 

 fruit of all, sending forward only what could be sold at rates 

 to give the grower someihing above marketing expenses, and 

 apportioning the shipments among growers in proportion to 

 their recorded crop, so that if any fruit should be left over 

 unsold, that unsalable surplus would be borne by all alike. 

 It was to become binding among those agreeing to unite, 

 whenever seventy-five per cent of the growers had signed the 

 agreement. This form of organization was made possible by 

 the concentration of the orange industry in a few contiguous 

 counties, so that every producer could be ascertained and 

 visited. The raisin industry affords an opportunity for a 

 similar organization, and the successful attempts of the 

 raisin-growers toward that end have already been described. 



*This paragraph was written in 1894, and the manuscript of the history to 

 that date was submitted to a prominent officer of the southern Exchanges, for 

 correction. This gentleman reported the facts correctly stated, but vigorously 

 denounced the term "Trust" as applied to an innocent society of horny- 

 handed farmers. I was obliged to reply to the gentleman that as I could see 

 no difference between the aims and methods of those societies and those of the 

 other industrial organizations popularly known as "Trusts," or any difference 

 except in effectiveness, it seemed desirable to include all under the name 

 which was commonly in use. Since that time this squeamishness has mostly 

 disappeared. Farmers generally, in California, understand very well that 

 producers' marketing societies which seek to control an entire product do not, 

 in principle or methods, materially differ from organizations of other interests 

 for the accomplishment of the same object. 



