194 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



fact that in 19 14- 15 it transacted more than $4,000,000 

 worth of business for its members. This sum was divided 

 into $2,450,000 for packing house supplies, $840,000 for 

 orchard materials and $770,000 worth of lumber and other 

 goods sold on the open market in connection with the com- 

 pany's lumbering operations. Some 14,500 orders were 

 handled by the company at a cost for operation of sixty- 

 eight and one-half cents on each $100 worth of business, 

 or about two-thirds of i per cent. Such economy of opera- 

 tion is one of the most commendable features of this par- 

 ticular organization. 



To make more vivid the large business conducted by the 

 Supply Company for associations and growers, a few of 

 the items handled by it in 1914-15 might be listed as 

 follows :^ 



^ Figures from Annual Reports of the Manager of the Fruit Growers 

 Supply Co., 1914-15- 



Box shooks 12,054,000 boxes 2190 carloads 



Tissue wraps 2,802,380,000 247 " (est.) 



Nails 16,450 kegs 50 " 



Sodium cyanide 1,750,000 pounds 58 " 



Sulphuric acid 2,870,000 pounds 



Fertilizers 26,200 tons (1913-14) 



The Fruit Growers Supply Company therefore is an im- 

 portant and successful factor in the cooperative system of 

 the citrus fruit growers. Probably the company's claim 

 that packing house and orchard materials cost the growers 

 $1,000,000 less annually than if it were not in existence is 

 not ill foxmded.^ 



^ A rather highly colored account of the Fruit Growers Supply Co. 

 may be found in the Country Gentleman, May 29, 1915, entitled "Buy- 

 ing for Sellers," by Walter V. Woehlke. Ch. IX of Powell's "Co- 

 operation in Agriculture," entitled "Cooperation in the Purchase of 

 Supplies," quite evidently refers to the Fruit Growers Supply Co., 

 though no names are mentioned. This treatment is quite satisfactory. 

 However, the description by the present writer has been written 

 wholly from first hand information. 



