PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 41 



work that they can not get more than is fair for them to get. All we 

 ask is for these Sacramento Valley growers to get together with us in 

 the South, and then we ought to do something. 



MR. MOTHERAL. I think the Raisin-Growers' Association of 

 Fresno and Kings counties and of the State of California is in a better 

 condition to-day than it ever has been. I believe we are in a position 

 to control, and will commence next year by controlling three fourths of 

 the raisins of the State. We are all beginning to be convinced of what 

 you have heard here before — that cooperation is the only way. We 

 have got to do business from start to finish; we can not afford to have a 

 lot of fellows on the outside doing part of our business and we doing 

 the other part. W^e have got to have an agency by which we ourselves 

 can sell our fruits in the markets of the world; we will have to pack and 

 sell our own goods. I think that will be done next year, and I believe 

 this: that when we accomplish that we will not have any more trouble. 



MR. JACOBS. I feel as if I would like to return the compliment to 

 Mr. Naftzger. The most important problem confronting the fruit- 

 growers of California to-day is the cooperation of the pioducers. I feel 

 almost as if I had already seen what I wrote in my paper, for Mr. 

 Naftzger and I both touched upon the same subject in the same way. 

 But as he said, I have not had the pleasure of seeing him since a year 

 ago at the Convention here. I believe one of pur greatest difficulties, 

 and one that is the foundation of all our troubles, is the question of 

 fear that has been in the minds of our growers in this part of the State. 

 They have started in from the wrong standpoint, because they fear 

 active competition from people who have interests opposed to theirs. 



In speaking of commission merchants and speculators, which, of 

 course, includes packers, it does not necessarily follow that we have 

 anything against them except as to the methods adopted and the 

 results to the producer. Having grown up in connection with the fruit 

 interests of this State, I believe and know, as we all do, that the future 

 prosperity of California depends upon the prosperity of the producer. 



The strange thing to me is that the people interested in growing 

 prunes and raisins, and the manufacturing and packing of dried fruits, 

 have not seen that when an association, such as Mr. Naftzger is at the 

 head of, has made such a success in the disposition of the orange, which 

 is a perishable product, how much more possible it would be to make a 

 success with raisins, prunes, and other dried fruits. But they have 

 gone on from year to year, the conventions meet and the same subjects 

 come up in different forms, and there always seems to be the fear that 

 if they antagonize the elements that have been distributing these goods 

 they are going to be hurt, and they sit down and permit the same state 

 of affairs to go on. 



We are not over-producing, but we are not taking the right methods 



