1288 
Pooling 
In the first two seasons the association 
had no general system of pooling. In 
19138, a general pooling system was 
adopted and now prevails. Soft fruits 
are pooled by districts while for winter 
apples there is one season’s pool covering 
all districts. 
Warehousing 
The association now operates twenty- 
six warehouses, located in the different 
districts, which afford large common 
storage facilities. It has planned a series 
of cold-storage plants to be owned and 
operated by the association. The first unit 
is located at North Yakima, and provides 
cold storage for 120 cars, besides exten- 
give common storage and general ware- 
house facilities for handling supplies and 
fruit shipments The second unit is now 
nearing completion at Zillah; it will pro- 
vide cold storage for 550 cars, ice-making 
capacity of 10,000 tons annually, and car 
pre-cooling trackage for 14 cars at a time. 
Advances 
Another serious problem which presents 
itself to co-operative marketing organi- 
zation is the financing of its growers. 
Money is needed by the individual grower 
to carry on preliminary orchard opera- 
tions; more money is needed to harvest 
the crop, and after it is delivered to the 
warehouse it is often difficult for him 
to wait for the return of his money from 
the markets and the closing of pools. To 
meet these needs the association has 
gradually developed a three-fold system 
of advances as follows: 
(a) Advances for spraying, thinning, 
general orchard labor and payment of 
-water assessments prior to delivery of 
fruit. Application for these must be 
made at the district office; the orchard 
must be inspected and the loan guaran- 
teed by the district; a second inspection 
is made by the association’s field depart- 
ment and the advance, if made, secured 
by interest-bearing notes and crop mort- 
gage. 
(b) Advances on delivery of fruit. 
These are made by the district managers 
upon request as soon as each load is 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
delivered; the amount per box is fixed 
by the sub-central office from time to 
time. The purpose of these advances is 
to provide the grower with money for 
harvesting expenses. No interest is 
charged. 
(c) General advances made on the 
basis of fruit delivered. Application is 
made at the district office and forwarded 
to sub-central office for action. These 
advances also draw no interest. 
Growth 
The association was organized in the 
fall of 1910. During the season of 1911 
it shipped 300 cars and ended the year 
with 328 members; in 1912 it shipped 
2,020 cars and ended the year with 6389 
members; in 1918, a short-crop year, it 
Shipped 1,800 cars and ended the year 
with 964 members; it now has 25 affili- 
ated districts and the membership is well 
past the one thousand mark. 
NORTH PACIFIC FRUIT 
DISTRIBUTORS 
H. C. SAMpPSson, 
Secerctary-Treasurer. 
Introduction 
Experience and observation convince 
all intelligent persons that under present 
conditions no great business or industry 
can succeed without such organization 
and such intelligent management and di- 
rection as will result in the largest vol- 
ume of business attainable at a minimum 
of expense. 
As soon as the growing of deciduous 
fruits in the Pacific Northwest began to 
assume large proportions, it became ap- 
parent to the thoughtful persons inter- 
ested in that industry that if our more 
than two hundred million dollar invest- 
ment was to be preserved and become the 
great factor of our agricultural and com- 
mercial world that was anticipated, some 
means must be devised to bring the grow- 
ers together into an organization for their 
mutual protection, and to provide a meth- 
od whereby the product could be stand- 
ardized and so sold as to eliminate, so far 
as possible, the element of waste in as- 
sembling, and unnecessary cost in selling 
and distribution; and whereby the con- 
