TWENTY-XINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



57 



CO-OPERATION IN THE MARKETING OF CURED FRUITS. 



By M. THEO. KEARNEY, of Fresno. 



Co-operation in the marketing of cured fruits is the subject upon 

 which I am invited to say a few words. This broadly covers all cured 

 fruits, whether peaches, apricots, pears, apples, prunes, or raisins. 



We are holding our meeting in the town and county of Fresno. 

 Fresno has been my home and the field of my labor for thirty years, 

 and it would be most agreeable to me simply to express the great 

 pleasure which I in common with all the people of this central portion 

 of the State have in Avelcoming to our midst our brother fruit-growers 

 of California, and in thanking you most cordially for the great honor 

 you have done us in again selecting our town for the holding of your 

 Convention. 



While it is always permissible to snatch some pleasures by the way as 

 we fly through life in this supremely strenuous country, now fairly well 

 known as the United States of America, we would not be true to our 

 environment, and to the spirit of our institutions, if we failed to put 

 duty and our material interests before pleasure. I must therefore beg 

 your indulgence and pardon if in the little I have to say on my subject 

 I use arguments and expressions which may not sound entirely pleasant 

 or agreeable. My apology and excuse is that in so doing I may prove 

 much more your real friend than if I adopted a more complimentary 

 line. 



We fruit-growers of California have been accustomed for so many 

 years to be praised for our thoroughness in the cultivation and general 

 management of our orchards and vineyards, for the intelligence and 

 skill displayed in the selection of varieties of fruits and in the combating 

 of insect pests, for the broad-minded and masterful enterprise shown in 

 the rapid development of our industry, and for the great success 

 achieved in the quality of our products, that perhaps we may be in a 

 measure pardoned for sitting still and purring gently while our fur is 

 being stroked the right way. 



But I want to ask you whether there is not ground for a strong 

 suspicion that we are really the receivers of goods that, strictly speak- 

 ing, do not belong to us ? We are being praised for our enterprise, our 

 business sagacity, and, in a word, for our success in life. Now, I con- 

 tend that efforts which are only half successful are not entitled to the 

 crown of praise and the laurel wreath. In other words, that although 

 we may produce perfect fruit in large quantities and at a minimum of 

 cost, still if we do not provide for the marketing of that fruit so that it 

 shall yield to us a reasonable profit every year on our investment of 

 capital and labor, we have not reached the goal, we are not victors in 

 the essential thing for which we are struggling, and, therefore, we prac- 

 tically are failures. 



