TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



213 



fixing of prices and determining the conditions under which the nuts 

 shall be sold. A few weeks before the walnut season opens, a meeting 

 of the committee is held for the purpose of making a general agreement. 

 For several consecutive years this general agreement has included the 

 following important provisions: 



(1) That the associations will all sell at the prices to be agreed upon 

 at a later meeting; 



(2) That the agents to be emploj-ed shall sell the nuts on a stated 

 commission ; 



(3) That when the nuts are loaded on the cars the agent must pay 

 cash down in full for them, and must take all the risks of collecting 

 from the man to whom the sale is made. 



Next, and finally, comes the meeting for fixing prices, which occurs 

 on or about the loth day of September. At this meeting the latest con- 

 sular reports are read, containing the best possible forecast as to the 

 size and quality of the incoming foreign crop; also, the latest and most 

 reliable information is given concerning market conditions — whether 

 any nuts of the preceding year remain unsold or not, and whether general 

 market conditions are good, or otherwise. And finally, a careful esti- 

 mate is made of the size of the incoming crop. Then, with all these 

 facts before it, the committee proceeds to fix the price as high as the 

 market will bear. 



While the average walnut-grower is shocked at the thought that such 

 wicked institutions as "trusts" and "combines" should be tolerated, 

 he can look with perfect equanimity upon the Walnut-Growers' Execu- 

 tive Committee. After all, our opinions depend a good deal on whose 

 ox is being gored! However, this can be said in defense of the execu- 

 tive committee: That while, under its control, the f. o. b. selling price 

 has steadily advanced from year to year until from a]30ut 7 cents per 

 pound in 1897 it has increased to 12^ cents in 1903, the man who eats 

 the nut really pays no more for it now than he did then. What has 

 actually been accomplished is this: The profits of the industry have 

 been diverted from the purses of the speculators to the pockets of the 

 farmers, while the consumer has not suffered at all. Also, the execu- 

 tive committee must be congratulated on the fact that this increase in 

 the f. 0. b. selling price has taken place while the output has grown 

 from 414 carloads in 1897, to 825 carloads in 1902, and will probably 

 reach over 1,000 carloads in 1904. We will not estimate the tonnage of 

 1903, as this is an off year and will probably fall below the output of 

 last season. 



If all the growers were members of the associations, a still higher 

 f. 0. b. price could be obtained — which, this year, would have amounted, 

 probably, to 2 cents more on the pound, owing to the shortage of the 

 crop. The outside nuts are a prey for the speculator, who, in many 



