ACTUAL RESULTS IN CALIFORNIA 151 



eration and selling before and during the cooperative era 

 and multiplying by the number of boxes each year shipped 

 by the exchange or by the whole industry, according as the 

 saving applied to exchange members or to all growers, the 

 hypothetical saving effected by cooperation is found to be 

 about $100,000,000. Mr. B. A. Woodford, for many years 

 General Manager of the California Fruit Growers Ex- 

 change, probably does not overshoot the mark when he 

 says in a short statement about the cooperative system: 



The net result of these changed conditions, reduced to 

 a money basis, shows that the savings that have been made 

 amount in themselves to much more than the growers now 

 receive as interest on their investment, which demonstrates 

 conclusively that without these savings, through improved 

 conditions brought about by cooperation, the citrus fruit 

 business would be disastrously unprofitable. 



Second among the purposes is insuring the collection of 

 sales. Formerly brokers were accustomed to charge 5 per 

 cent, on sales for guaranteeing the collection and trans- 

 mission of proceeds. To be sure, not all shippers had their 

 collections guaranteed, but the fact that 5 per cent, would 

 be paid by some shows that the risks of loss through bad 

 debts and the transmission of funds were considerable. 

 Whether the grower insured his sales with his broker or 

 assumed the risks, he was losing heavily, for these addi- 

 tional costs had to be deducted from his gross returns. 

 Under the exchange system, the representatives of the 

 California Fruit Growers Exchange have as one of their 

 duties the collection of sales and the transmission of funds. 

 None but a cash business is transacted. At the conclusion 

 of each sale the agent of the Exchange receives the pur- 

 chaser's check, deposits it in a bank, and immediately draws 

 a check for the full amount in favor of the California ship- 

 per. No additional charge is made for this collection, nor 

 are collections guaranteed, but so successful have the 



