BEGINNINGS IN CALIFORNIA 49 



ganization, we must consider some of the reasons why the 

 sporadic efforts of the citrus growers to work out their own 

 salvation were finally successful when most other agricul- 

 tural industries, even though much older, still rely on the 

 local buyer or the commission man for the disposal of their 

 crops. Were there any peculiar factors in the citrus grow- 

 ers' situation which impelled them to organize and which 

 could furnish the basis for an enduring and effective scheme 

 of organization? 



The key to the whole explanation of both the cause and 

 the effectiveness of cooperation in the citrus industry is 

 found in the fact that oranges and lemons were formerly 

 and are even yet to a large extent an agricultural specialty. 

 Professor Carver well says that success in growing a staple 

 product or one which will always sell at some quotable 

 price is primarily attained by lowering the cost of produc- 

 tion, by producing a unit at a cost lower than the general 

 average. But with an agricultural specialty success depends 

 not primarily on being a good producer but on being a 

 good seller.^ A consumer is rarely induced to buy more 

 flour or more soap by skillful advertising or attractive dis- 

 plays ; he merely is induced to buy one kind rather than an- 

 other. With a specialty there is no universal year in and 

 year out demand. Consumers must be persuaded to take 

 it at a remunerative price. If the price of a staple falls 

 a few points there are buyers for practically unlimited 

 amounts, but the demand for a specialty is not nearly so 

 responsive. New increments added to an already supplied 

 market often mean a more than proportional decline in 

 price, and continued supplies may soon result in no price 

 being offered at all. It is cold comfort to the producer of 

 a specialty to know that because his methods of production 



* Carver : "Principles of Rural Economics," p. 235. 



