CONSTITUTION OF THE EXCHANGES 83 



machinery or repairs for old, and numerous other items. 

 But neither does the house want to order more supplies 

 than it will need. Therefore, at, say, their October meet- 

 ing the directors and manager, from their general knowl- 

 edge of what the crop is likely to be, estimate the quantity 

 of supplies that will be needed and empower the manager 

 to take measures for having them on hand when the pack- 

 ing season begins. 



At the November meeting account is taken of the rate 

 at which the fruit is maturing and how much, if any, shall 

 be sent forward for the holiday market. In the Tulare 

 region, where the vast bulk of the crop is shipped during 

 November and December, packing facilities run at high 

 speed for this holiday period, but in southern California 

 the association machinery does not much more than get 

 under way by December. For the November and December 

 pools or one holiday pool, as decided by the directors, 

 growers are often allowed to contribute about the amounts 

 they wish, as it would be impossible to furnish any great 

 amount of mature fruit. In December the directors have 

 placed before them careful estimates, prepared by the man- 

 ager, df all the fruit that is likely to be shipped through the 

 association during the current year. The estimates are 

 prepared after the fruit is beginning to mature and conse- 

 quently make a showing on the trees by requesting each 

 member to calculate with the utmost possible accuracy how 

 many field boxes of fruit his grove is going to pick. Often 

 the manager or picking foreman makes an independent 

 estimate so as to check the grower's results. These esti- 

 mates may not seem of much significance to an outsider, 

 but associations have often lost thousands of dollars be- 

 cause of inaccurate calculations. If too large an estimate 

 is made the crop is all sold before the end of the season 

 and a demand left unsupplied. If the estimate is too small, 



