BEGINNINGS IN CALIFORNIA 51 



of the condition of each market every day, tell how much 

 fruit had been sold and at what prices, how many cars were 

 on track, how many were rolling toward each market, and 

 the time they would arrive. All of this information was 

 necessary if the crop was to be scientifically distributed 

 geographically or in relation to time. Without such in- 

 formation all a shipper could do was to send his cars to 

 a few of the largest markets, where an additional car would 

 cause the least fall in price, and trust to fate that these 

 markets would not be overcrowded when his shipments ar- 

 rived. There are a large number of cities in the United 

 States and Canada which can absorb, say, a carload of 

 oranges a week, provided the consumption capacity of the 

 place for oranges is properly worked up by advertising, 

 including the actual display of the fruit. No one buyer in 

 such a town would be able to handle a whole car at one 

 time, and it would obviously be bad business for a shipper 

 to keep an agent in a town in order to sell one car a week. 

 Nor could a shipper in California risk billing a car to such 

 a town on the chance that it would be profitable, for if an- 

 other car happened to be there it is almost certain that 

 neither car would pay the charges for packing and freight. 



Oranges, then, must be sent regularly to every market that 

 could use them; new markets must be developed and the 

 shipping season prolonged, and shipments must be con- 

 trolled so that gluts and consequent losses would not occur 

 if the constantly increasing crop was to be sold at a profit. 

 It should be reasonably clear that buyers and commission 

 men could not have met these conditions, even if they had 

 been far sighted and honest. 



Of less significance than a wide and prolonged distribu- 

 tion of fruit, but by no means unimportant in impelling the 

 growers to mutual effort, were the problems connected with 

 large scale as contrasted with small scale enterprise. The 



