28 PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



• product on the market through agencies established for other purposes or 

 with mixed interests? It has been stated upon the floor of this Con- 

 vention that the fruit products of California have reached the enormous 

 valuation of twenty-five millions of dollars in a single year. Will any 

 grower attempt to maintain that this is not sufficient to justify the 

 maintenance of the most thorough system of distribution? A very small 

 percentage of this great sum would girdle the earth with the best talent 

 obtainable and devoted solely to the introduction of California fruits. 



This will separate the work of marketing from adverse influences; it 

 will eliminate speculative features; it will establish permanent channels 

 through which supplies reach the consumer; it will equalize distribution; 

 it will reduce operating expenses; it will strengthen and steady prices. 

 I have yet to hear what I deem a sound argument against this method. 

 If you will excuse what may seem somewhat personal, I will say that 

 the Southern California Fruit Exchange has its own offices in thirty of 

 the principal cities of the United States. Salaried agents and assistants 

 in these offices are constantly keeping our fruits before the attention of 

 the jobbers in all of these cities and adjacent territory. In fact, by 

 this method we cover every jobbing city in the United States and extend 

 into Canada and Europe. Through these agencies, we are marketing 

 half the citrus products of California satisfactorily to the growers, and 

 to a large degree steadying the markets for the other half. These 

 agencies are engaged exclusively and continuously in the sale of Cali- 

 fornia fruits. They are not talking oranges to-day, bananas to-morrow, 

 baking powder the next day, and so on, but are incessantly urging our 

 own fruits upon the attention of the jobber and wholesaler, and if he 

 should show indifference to them they go to the smaller and the 

 country merchants with them. During the year since the last meeting 

 of this Convention, we have sold through these agencies over 11,000 

 carloads of citrus fruits for nearly $9,000,000. In addition, we have 

 sold for other cooperative organizations, some hundreds of carloads 

 of California products. This we have done at a cost of but three 

 per cent to the grower. We transacted this large business without the 

 loBS of a dollar from bad credits. Covering a period of five years and 

 the sales of $22,000,000 worth of fruit, our total losses from bad credits 

 have been less than one fortieth of one per cent. These facts and 

 figures are cited to show you that the method I advocate is practicable, 

 and can be carried into successful execution. It is not a dream. 

 Pardon me for repeating what I have said frequently before in these 

 conventions, that California fruit-growers ought, and as I believe must 

 establish, control, and maintain their own agencies for the distribution 

 of their products, kept free from the shifting influences of speculation. 

 This must have for its sole purpose and object the interest and success 

 of the individual grower. These agencies, dominated alone by and for 



