198 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



are offered. Under the old plan, though every shipper 

 knew that at certain times the only way to save the market 

 from demoralization was to reduce shipments, yet no single 

 shipper was likely to send his fruit to the dump for the 

 sake of improving the lemon market, since by his very 

 action he would be excluded from participating in the bene- 

 fits which he had helped to produce. As long as there was 

 any likelihood of paying an)^hing above freight, packing 

 and selling charges, shippers were going to send forward 

 as many lemons as possible. Undoubtedly this was a short 

 sighted policy, but under the conditions as they formerly 

 existed no other was possible. 



Unless some kind of an agreement could have been 

 worked out by which shippers would reduce their output 

 by a definite percentage when the market was overstocked, 

 gluts were inevitable. Moreover, such an agreement would 

 unquestionably have been illegal. However, -as soon as the 

 By-Products Company gets into operation, associations will 

 only market lemons as long as the price is more than enough 

 to counterbalance what can be made by turning the fruit 

 into by-products. For example, in the winter when the 

 demand for lemons is slight, some return can be had on 

 the fruit without shipping it. Thus the company is in- 

 tended to be a kind of safety valve. It is expected to 

 stabilize the market and prevent those shortages and gluts 

 which are almost equally injurious for growers and for 

 dealers. With an efficient by-products plant available the 

 disastrous season of 1914-15 could not have occurred. This 

 new departure in cooperation should prove interesting, as 

 'there are possibilities of wide development. It also should 

 prove most beneficial to the citrus industry. 



An important factor in the California cooperative system 

 is the Citrus Protective League. It was the first organiza- 

 tion of its kind in the United States ; it concerns itself with 



