56 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



a great deal of objection to its formation, and nobody 

 seemed to know just what it was expected to do. Mr. 

 Dezell, now Assistant General Manager of the California 

 Fruit Growers Exchange, says that so far as he knows 

 the contract of the California Fruit Agency is no longer 

 accessible. Mr. Dreher, Vice-President of the Exchange, 

 writes : "I know of nothing in print concerning the founda- 

 tion of the California Fruit Agency. I was a participant, 

 although an objector, and a minority member of that forma- 

 tion. In it the Exchange on the one end and the speculative 

 shipper on the other formed a general selling agency, each 

 factor handling its own fruit and protecting its own opera- 

 tions." The chief purpose of the agency seems to have 

 been to sell as large a percentage of the crop as possible 

 f. o. b., California. 



This "incongruous combination of producers and dealers" 

 lasted only from April i, 1903, to August 31, 1904, and 

 on resuming its independent operations the Southern Cali- 

 fornia Fruit Exchange outlined its future policy as follows : 



Upon the formation of the California Fruit Agency, 

 every effort was made to sell the fruit f. o. b., California. 

 All agents were instructed to push this policy, and men 

 were employed as salesmen in the sales department of the 

 agency who possessed ability and much experience in that 

 line, and who had been in the employ of the leading packers, 

 as their salesmen, for many years. 



Immediately after the California Fruit Agency was or- 

 ganized, April I, 1903, f. o. b. orders for fruit (usual terms 

 of inspection, etc.) were only received in limited numbers, 

 and not sufficient to move a reasonable percentage of the 

 crop, although climatic conditions in California were most 

 favorable to restrict shipments. It soon became necessary, 

 in order to move the crop, to ship and attempt to make sales 

 in transit, or sell the fruit delivered at market value at the 

 point and time of delivery. 



Our crops are now so large that all markets should be 



