Page 50 



BETTER FRUIT 



HOOD RIVER, OREGON 

 Official Organ of 

 The Northwest Fruit Growers' Association 

 A Monthly Illustrated Magazine 

 Published in the Interest of Modern 

 Fruit Growing and Marketing 

 All Communications Should Be Addressed and 

 Remittances Made Payable to 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



E. H. SHEPARD 

 Editor and Publisher 

 C. R. Greisen, Assistant Editor 

 H. E. Van Deman, Contributing Editor 

 State Associate Editors 



OREGON 



A. B. Cordley, Entomologist. Corvallis 

 C. I. Lewis, Horticulturist. Corvallis 

 P. J. O'Gara, Pathologist and Entomologist, 

 Medford 



WASHINGTON 



\V. S. Thornber, Horticulturist, Pullman 

 A. L. Melander, Entomologist, Pullman 



COLORADO 



C. P. Gillette, Director and Entomologist, 

 Fort Collins 



E. B. House, Chief of Dcf'artmcnt of Ciz'il and 

 Irrigation Engineering. State Agricultural 

 College, Fort Collins 

 E. P. Taylor, Horticulturist, Grand Junction 



IDAHO 



J. M. Aldrich, Entomologist, Moscow 



UTAH 



Dr. E. D. Ball, Director and Entomologist, Logan 

 Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist, Logan 



MONTANA 



O. B. Whipple, Horticulturist. Bozeman 



CALIFORNIA 



C. W. WooDWORTH, Entomologist, Berkeley 

 \V. H. VoLCK, Entomologist. Watsonville 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 



R. M. W'iNSLOW, Provincial Horticulturist. Victoria 

 SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $1.00 PER YEAR 



In Advance, in United States and Canada 

 Foreign Subscriptions, Including Postage, $1..5n 



Advertising Rates on Application 

 Entered as second-class matter December 2y. i<)o6. 

 at the Post Oflice at Hood River. Oregon, 

 under Act of Congress of March 5, 1S7Q. 



CENTRAL SELLING AGENCY.— 

 It is now four months since this 

 suggestion was made and three months 

 since the first meeting was held at Port- 

 land, a second meeting being held in 

 Walla Walla, which adjourned subject 

 to the call of the chairman for a third 

 meeting, for which notices have not yet 

 been sent out. 



Yakima Valley is the largest fruit pro- 

 ducing section in the Northwest. The 

 Yakima Republic, which is in close touch 

 with the fruit growers of Yakima Valley, 

 comments as follows: "There is not, 

 and there never was, any reason to 

 believe that such an ambition would suc- 

 ceed under present conditions, and if 

 Wenatchee and other districts had all 

 taken hold of it it would have petered 

 out in a short time or would have fallen 

 into the hands of private speculators. 

 Why talk about organizing the fruit men 

 of three states when we have not organ- 

 ized any district, when we have not 

 formed a working association in any 

 single valley or neighborhood, when the 

 apple growers in no section or territory 

 have come forward and signified their 

 willingness to organize, or even expressed 

 their belief in the principals of organiza- 

 tion? To go ahead with such a plan as 

 has been outlined is like building a 

 house without a foundation. The Yakima 

 Republic will be frank about this matter 

 and will say that it has no great amount 

 of confidence in the central agency plan. 

 It is not convinced that anything of the 



BETTER FRUIT 



kind is necessary just now, even though 

 it may be practicable. What we of the 

 Yakima country want is an organization 

 of the Yakima fruit growers which will 

 enable those engaged in the industry to 

 present a solid front to the world on all 

 matters that concern it, and will enable 

 our producers to deal as one man or 

 business institution with those who grow 

 apples, those who furnish supplies and 

 those who grow fruit. Organizations 

 such as this have done rnuch for Hood 

 River and Wenatchee farmers. They are 

 wholly practicable in any producing dis- 

 trict. They may be made the basis of a 

 central selling agency when they are per- 

 fected and are built to command the con- 

 fidence of the producers and the respect 

 of dealers, and the formation of such an 

 agency will be a very simple matter then." 



The editor of "Better Fruit" has had 

 eight years' practical experience in asso- 

 ciation work, having been a director and 

 manager of the Hood River Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Union for six years, three years the 

 manager of the Hood River Apple Grow- 

 ers' Union and four years a director in 

 the Hood River Apple Growers' Union. 

 During this period the editor has been 

 actively engaged in the practical prob- 

 lem of marketing fruit through an asso- 

 ciation and has kept in constant touch 

 with the associations of other districts, 

 either by correspondence, personal inter- 

 views and visits in the districts, with 

 their directors and managers. When a 

 call was first issued for a central selling 

 agency the editor of "Better Fruit" 

 declined to express an opinion for the 

 reason that he felt much good would 

 come out of meetings held for this pur- 

 pose through the exchange of ideas 

 and the acquantanceship that would be 

 formed among fruit growers from the 

 different sections, which would lead to 

 more harmony and a better understand- 

 ing in the future, and for the further 

 reason that he did not wish to be mis- 

 understood, and by presenting his views 

 at that time they might be construed to 

 be antagonistic, which, in a measure, 

 might interfere with the good that could 

 be reasonably expected to come out of 

 such meetings. The Yakima Republic 

 expresses some views in its article which 

 were apparent when the movement first 

 started to those who had had a great 

 deal of practical experience and had 

 actually been engaged in association 

 work, either as directors or as managers. 

 The basis of such an institution must 

 be built on sound principles. The sug- 

 gestion presented to the first meeting by 

 th€ editor was that no plan which called 

 for all the apples of one variety in the 

 different districts being packed according 

 to a standard grade, being sold at the 

 same price and settled for at the same 

 figure to each of the districts, would be 

 acceptable to all of the districts. Although 

 this idea was construed by some as being 

 antagonistic, still it was not meant in 

 this way. The idea is absolutely sound 

 and must prevail if such an institution is 

 ever to be organized. The fruit of each 

 district must be sold on its own merit; 

 the trade will only purchase and pay the 

 market prices on any commodity. An 



June 



institution of such magnitude must be 

 built on large units, and it is our opinion 

 that such an institution will find much 

 difficulty in organization if its units are 

 individuals. T'o some of our intimate 

 friends the idea was expressed that if the 

 very large sections like Southern Ore- 

 gon, Yakima, Wenatchee and Hood 

 River, where good fruit growers' asso- 

 ciations already existed, could be united 

 on a plan which would be harmonious 

 and acceptable to each of the four dis- 

 tricts mentioned, that the central selling 

 agency would be well under way toward 

 forming an organization and that a plan 

 which would be acceptable to these dis- 

 tricts on account of their being the 

 oldest in the line of organization work, 

 and for the further reasons that their 

 associations contained the largest mem- 

 bership of any of the associations of the 

 Northwest, would naturally be founded 

 on true principles, and consequently 

 would be acceptable to the smaller sec- 

 tions with smaller associations. 



At the end of four months the action 

 taken by these four districts is just what 

 was anticipated by the editor of "Better 

 Fruit" and others who have had niuch 

 practical experience and have given the 

 matter serious thought. Wenatchee vued 

 two to one not to go into the central 

 selling agency. The Yakima Republic, 

 by the article from which we have 

 quoted, has indicated that at present it 

 is not in favor of a central selling 

 agency. We understand that the South- 

 ern Oregon District Association has 

 decided to market its apple crop this 

 year through the Northwestern Fruit 

 Exchange. The Hood River Apple 

 Growers' Union, at its annual meeting, 

 did not vote or bring up for discussion 

 the central selling agency plan, but an 

 active discussion took place in reference 

 to plans and methods of improving the 

 present organization, perfecting its sell- 

 ing plans, increasing its capital stock 

 from .$25,000 to $50,000, and decided to 

 conduct its own business in the future 

 along lines similar to those in the past 

 and to improve each department of its 

 business and increase its field of opera- 

 tion, and to improve each part of the 

 present organization in every way pos- 

 sible. So there you have the views and 

 the conclusions of the four largest fruit 

 sections in Oregon and Washington. 



It is rumored that some of the associ- 

 ciations in Southern Idaho will conduct 

 their own business on different plans 

 with a view to bettering their methods, 

 while some associations, we have heard, 

 will market their fruits through the 

 Northwestern Fruit Exchange. In the 

 deciduous fruit sections of California 

 there already exist several large incor- 

 porated companies for marketing the 

 fruit, which companies are not owned or 

 controlled by the growers. Among such 

 may be mentioned the Earl Fruit Com- 

 pany, The Pioneer Fruit Company, The 

 California Distributors and several others. 

 These companies have acted in harmony 

 with each other during the past few 

 years without putting up personal fights, 

 for which the grower would have to pay. 

 The Stewart Fruit Company is an inde- 



Continued on page 53. 



