284 HORTICULTURE FOR SCHOOLS 



critical step in the progress of a cooperative organization. 

 A high degree of integrity, tact, and trained executive ability, 

 is required for the successful conduct of so complex a business. 

 The organization is likely to be subjected to considerable 

 pressure from without. Adverse interests encourage members 

 to break away by criticising the management or by promising 

 larger returns for a season than are justified by the condition 

 of the industry. There is always a certain proportion of the 

 membership which will listen to such propaganda and with- 

 draw, leaving the brunt of the fight to be borne by those who 

 remain. 



398. Extent of cooperative marketing. The cooperative 

 marketing system has been applied successfully to many 

 fields. In California, cooperative organizations have been 

 formed by the growers of citrus fruits, walnuts, almonds, lima 

 beans, celery, and cauliflower. In Maine, Delaware, and 

 Maryland, the potato-growers are organized, and in Colorado 

 the producers of cantaloupes. The fruit-growers of the North- 

 west have organized in groups according to the kind of fruit 

 raised. In Minnesota the shippers of live-stock are organized. 

 The list of cooperative associations is growing rapidly in 

 all parts of the United States. 



399. An example of cooperative marketing. One of the 

 largest cooperative organizations in the United States is the 

 California Fruit Growers' Exchange (see Figs. 134, 35), 

 which handles the orange and lemon crop. The organization 

 markets the fruit of eleven thousand growers. These pro- 

 ducers are separated into one hundred ninety-seven neighbor- 

 hood associations, each of which owns a packing-house. 

 These are in turn organized into twenty district exchanges 

 and these again are affiliated in one central organization, 

 whose place of business is in the city of Los Angeles. 



The exchange has as its field of operation the whole of the 

 United States and many parts of Canada. It must be in- 

 formed of the market situation as it exists from 1 day to day 



