94 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



fruit without the association's permission; in the second 

 case the association cannot pick an orange without the 

 owner's permission. It is the familiar argument: "Do 

 other people know how to run my business better than I 

 do, and am I to be dictated to on my own ranch?" 



A rigid interpretation of the rule providing for coopera- 

 tive picking might inflict hardship on a few members. A 

 grower with five acres or so could easily pick his proper 

 quota for any pool, particularly if he had two or three 

 sturdy boys, and his financial condition may make it im- 

 perative that he do all of his own work. Assuming that 

 on five acres he might pick 2,250 loose boxes and that the 

 association would charge four cents a box for picking, this 

 man would save a money outgo of $90 by doing his own 

 work. Economy is not an outstanding characteristic of 

 the citrus growers, and many owners even of small groves 

 take it as a matter of course that the fruit shall be gathered 

 by hired labor, but occasionally a member wishes to do his 

 own work. Is there any reason for forbidding such a mem- 

 ber to do so? 



Picking oranges or lemons can be done by anybody, but 

 it cannot be done properly by anybody. To clip a smooth 

 short stem without causing an abrasion of the skin is not 

 easy, nor is it entirely simple to transfer the fruit from 

 picking sack to lug box without bruising. Pickers must be 

 carefully trained and constantly watched if the best results 

 are to be obtained. Now the ordinary grower or farm hand 

 does not possess this special training. Consequently his 

 fruit does not come to the packing house in as good condi- 

 tion as the fruit picked by the association. But what of it? 

 Does not the grower himself have to stand the loss occa- 

 sioned by his own inefficiency? If he did, there would be 

 little purpose in trying to force progressiveness upon him. 

 But his punctured and bruised fruit is mingled in the pool 



