1284 
YAKIMA VALLEY FRUIT GROWERS’ 
ASSOCIATION 
Frank E. Sickirs, 
General Manager. 
The Yakima Valley Fruit Growers’ As- 
sociation was organized in the fall of 
1910. It was the outgrowth of a wide- 
spread feeling among the fruit growers 
of the valley, who faced the fact that an 
enormous acreage had been planted to 
fruit trees which would soon come into 
bearing, that only through co-operative 
effort and organization could a solution 
of the marketing problem be found and 
the industry placed upon a permanent 
business basis. Their purpose was ex- 
pressed in the preamble of the articles 
of incorporation which were filed Novem- 
ber 7, 1910: 
“We, the undersigned, realizing the 
advantages to be gained by drawing more 
closely together the fruit growers of the 
Yakima valley and the advantages that 
may be gained by co-operation and unity 
of action among said growers, and for 
the purposes of cementing the business 
relations which should exist among the 
fruit growers as a class, to the end that 
they may all work together for their 
mutual interests in securing the most 
favorable markets for their products, and 
in attaining the highest standard of qual- 
ity of fruit shipped from the Yakima 
valley, do hereby agree to form an asso- 
ciation or corporation for mutual advan- 
tage, and not for profit, and to that end 
hereby make and subscribe and do hereby 
adopt the following articles of incorpora- 
tion, to-wit:” 
The list of the first-year directors, with 
their residences, shows that from the 
first the organization was valley wide, 
bringing together, perhaps for the first 
time, into united and harmonious action, 
men living “above the gap” and men 
living “below the gap,” phrases which will 
be familiar to Yakima people. Following 
is the list: 
E. M. Sly, Kennewick; B. D. Thomp- 
son, Granger; J. E. Shannon, Geo. E. C. 
Johnson, North Yakima; John Dobie, 
Lower Naches, and M. HE. Olson, Parker. 
The plan of organization which was 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
adopted and which we outline below, is 
the work very largely of Mr. N. C. Rich- 
ards of North Yakima, who has been 
from the beginning general counsel for 
the association; and its successful devel- 
opment and application to practical busi- 
ness has been the result in great measure 
of the organizing skill, tireless energy 
and unfailing faith of Mr. J. H. Robbins, 
who until June, 1913, was general man- 
ager. The association is generally recog- 
nized as one of the most successful of 
all co-operative organizations and has al- 
ready served as a model for many other 
such enterprises; a somewhat full ac- 
count of its plan may be of value to fruit 
growers everywhere. 
The organization is incorporated under 
the provisions of the so-called “Fraternal 
Lodge Law” of the State of Washington; 
and the fact is suggestive of the spirit, 
purpose and method of the organization 
As a corporation it is therefore what is 
known in some states as a “membership 
corporation” as distinguished from a 
“stock corporation.” 
No Capital Stock 
The association has no capital stock. 
The reasoning which controlled the ac- 
tion of the organizers may be stated 
somewhat as follows: Many of the evils 
which have sprung from the tremendous 
growth of modern corporations have had 
their origin in the fact that there are 
two distinct sets of interests and meas- 
ures of values in every corporate con- 
cern, the business itself and the stocks 
based upon it; and the two are often by 
no means identical; when the concern 
grows large two distinct lines of enter- 
prise spring up, the conduct of the cor- 
porate business and the flotation and 
manipulation of the stock. This segrega- 
tion of interests attaching to stock from 
those attaching to the business itself 
they believed to be especially dangerous 
in a growers’ marketing organization, for 
the peculiar conditions, relations, needs 
and purposes of the business emphasize 
the danger at every point. The growers’ 
only interest in the organization is to 
secure through it the maximum of re- 
turns at the minimum charge; the stock- 
