TWENTY-NINTH FEUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



223 



in carloads, or in large shipments by steamer, and reaching San Fran- 

 cisco very green must be ripened in a specially prepared room, thus 

 making it a very heavy risk to carry them and therefore extremely 

 difficult for us to supply our customers with bananas. The houses 

 carrying them refused to sell either to us or to our customers. The 

 same illustration would apply to many other classes of fruit. The 

 method employed was to select say six or eight of our customers at a 

 time, and by watching them closely prevent their obtaining all supplies 

 such as we could not furnish, either directly or through an agent. 

 Then when that lot was brought to a proper state of subjection a few 

 more would be sele'cted and the operation repeated. By this means the 

 open accounts with the retailers on our books were reduced from 249 in 

 July, to 7 in November. 



In the meantime we had adopted various expedients for disposing of 

 our fruit, and while suffering considerable inconvenience, managed to 

 maintain our house. The growers along the Sacramento River renewed 

 their pledges of loyalty to the movement and offered their money freely 

 to sustain the house. At last the commission merchants, rather than 

 face another season of disastrous competition, proposed a truce and a 

 basis of agreement by which the growers should suffer no disabilities in 

 selling their products in San Francisco, and it was accepted. This was 

 about May 1st of the present year, since which time the Agency has 

 conducted a thoroughly satisfactory and profitable business. It has 

 now no fights on hand, but is most active in striving for the highest 

 efficiency in the conduct of its business, and it needs but the loyal sup- 

 port of the growers who ship to that market to make it a powerful 

 source of protection and profit to the producers of California. As a 

 result of its existence the growers of the Sacramento River have 

 received uniformly higher and more satisfactory returns as compared 

 to market prices on all lines of goods than ever before, not only from 

 the Agency, but also from those houses which are compelled to compete 

 directly with prices as established by its returns. Empty packages 

 have been returned more promptly, and many conditions have been 

 vastly improved as a result of a healthy competition with a house 

 whose interest lies only in the betterment of such conditions for the 

 grower, and securing for him the highest market price for his products. 



The Agency has recently been moved from the original location at 

 503 Front street, which was found entirely too small for its needs, into 

 larger and more convenient quarters at 425, 427, and 429 Front street, 

 where it has splendid facilities for the display and sale of goods, in a 

 situation right in the heart of the commission district. During the 

 time the Agency has been conducted we have been able to secure the 

 services of a thoroughly experienced and able staff of salesmen, book- 

 keepers, etc., which insures prompt and faithful attention to all details. 



