CALIFORNIA 
cost of operation, the expenses being 
usually apportioned on a box basis. The 
purpose of the association was, primar- 
ily, to bring about uniformity in grading 
and packing, and to reduce the cost of 
preparing the fruit for sale. These econ- 
omies were shared by the grower alone. 
In packing their fruits on a mutual 
basis the growers have, however, only 
solved in a small degree the real problem 
that confronted them and, to get the full 
benefit of co-operation, it became neces- 
sary to extend these joint operations to 
the distribution and sale of the fruit. 
The result was the formation of the Cali- 
fornia Fruit Growers’ Exchange, to which 
the grower entrusted the marketing of 
his fruit after it had been packed and 
placed in the car. More than 110 of these 
packing associations have joined together 
in this manner, and their business has 
increased from 20 per cent of the entire 
crop 12 years ago, to 40 per cent six years 
ago, and 60 per cent today. 
The problem of distribution is fully as 
important as the problem of sale. Our 
crops are now so large, and the necessity 
of keeping our oranges and lemons before 
the entire consuming public is so great, 
that not only must the fruit be put into 
every possible available market, but the 
distribution must be even and continu- 
ous. Any other practice invites disaster. 
With the 110 packing houses operating 
through the exchange, each conducting 
its own business independently of the 
other, or with the 16 district exchanges 
of which the general exchange is com- 
posed, each operating independently of 
the other, bare markets at one point and 
overstocked markets at the same time in 
another would be the inevitable result. 
As it is now, with 60 per cent of the busi- 
ness in harmonious action, and knowing 
by experience about what the policy of 
the non-exchange shippers is, the distribu- 
tion of its fruit by the exchange is con- 
ducted on a basis that assures far greater 
consumption at better prices than for- 
merly when its percentage of shipments 
was smaller. 
The organized selling force of the ex- 
change throughout the country is one of 
695 
its strongest features. This force is com- 
posed almost wholly of salaried agents, 
each giving his undivided attention to 
selling exchange oranges and lemons. This 
is in line with the policy of all up-to-date 
business enterprises, it being universally 
recognized that specialized service brings 
best results. Salaried salesmen in all im- 
portant market centers is a distinctively 
exchange feature in citrus fruit market- 
ing, and the exchange has 75 principal 
offices of its own in the United States, 
Canada and Europe, with over 200 sal- 
aried salesmen operating out of them, re- 
porting sales and market conditions daily 
by wire. 
The savings to the growers who sell 
their fruit through the exchange at the 
actual cost of operation with no profit to 
any individuals except the salaries that 
they get, run into astonishing figures 
when based upon the entire output of the 
state. Twenty million boxes of oranges 
and lemons have been produced in Cali- 
fornia the present season. One cent per 
box on this output amounts to $200,000. 
A. few cents per box saved out of packers’ 
profits, added to a few cents per box 
saved out of sellers’ profits, amounts to 
several millions of dollars annually. 
Newspaper advertising has been the 
greatest single factor in bringing about 
increased consumption of our oranges 
and lemons. From the experience gained 
through an initial expenditure of $10,000 
in the first year of advertising in Iowa, 
and materially increased expenditures 
each succeeding year, with an appropria- 
tion of $100,000 for an advertising cam- 
paign that covers nearly the entire 
United States and Canada the present 
season, the exchange is now in a position 
to testify as to the complete success of 
its advertising methods. Three thousand 
newspapers scattered broadcast through- 
out the land are advertising regularly 
the superior merit of California citrus 
fruits and of California Fruit Growers’ 
Exchange citrus fruits in particular. Such 
extensive publicity can only be obtained 
by the expenditure of a very large sum, 
but $100,000 means only four-fifths of a 
cent per box to exchange growers on this 
