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the growth in the volume of our shipments, which growth is largely the 

 result of opening the Atlantic sea-board markets, and many interior 

 markets, by the introduction of the auction plan of selling fruits, a 

 system first introduced in connection with the sale of California fruits 

 in 1887. 



" In spite of the railway strike, the hard times, and the more or less 

 unsatisfactory railway service, the year 1894 should have been a pros- 

 perous one for the California fruit grower, who, so to speak, had for the 

 first time in the history of the fruit industry the great markets of the 

 East largely to himself — an opportunity caused by the almost total 

 failure of the Eastern crop, and such as may not again present itself in 

 many years. This golden opportunity, however, was largely wasted 

 through lack of proper and intelligent distribution of his products. 



"As a rule, the markets of the East were kept glutted and the prices 

 to the grower thereby made ruinously low. Such having been the case 

 in 1894, with a probable shipment of about 7,000 cars, and with the 

 Eastern crop almost a total failure, what is likely to be the result when 

 the California fruit crop will aggregate many more than 7,000 carloads, 

 as it surely will within the next few years, and when the Eastern crop 

 shall be* a normal one, or an unusually large one? The answer must 

 be self-evident. There can be but one result, and that result one of 

 disaster to the army of fruit growers in our State and a serious crip- 

 pling of the green fruit industry of California. 



"As far back as 1885, when our Eastern shipments did not exceed 

 much over 1,000 carloads of green fruit a season, the cry was already 

 raised that we were over-producing, and that the ruinously low prices 

 received in those years in the East were caused by an over-supply. 

 There were many, even among the oldest and most experienced Cali- 

 fornia fruit men — dealers and growers — who at that time strongly ad- 

 vised that we should stop planting and tear up a portion of the trees 

 and vines already planted. And yet, in spite of these opinions, as soon 

 as the causes for the low prices were removed, and the system of hand- 

 ling our fruits in the East changed and new markets opened and de- 

 veloped, we have seen the shipments increased four- and five-fold at 

 better prices than were obtained when 1,000 carloads and less were 

 shipped in a season, showing plainly that the low prices realized in 

 those earlier years were not caused by over-production, but by a lack of 

 knowledge and proper facilities for the handling of the fruits. 



"All this will, to my mind, apply to present conditions. I, for one, 

 do not believe that in a year like this, with a fruit famine in the East, 

 7,000 carloads should glut all the great markets east ■ of the Rocky 

 Mountains, especially when it is known that the market of New York 

 City alone has, in the past, with profit to the grower, consumed as many 

 as 500 carloads of domestic peaches in one week. The fault is not with 

 the markets but with our manner of distribution. Fortunately this is a 

 matter that can be remedied, and every effort should be made to bring 

 about this remedy as speedily as possible. 



"During the earlier history of the auction-sale system it was com- 

 paratively easy to regulate the distribution of our fruits in the East, 

 from the fact that over 90 per cent of the shipments were made through 

 two mediums, the California Fruit Union and the Earl Fruit Company, 

 which made it possible to more or less regulate its distribution. But 

 within the past year or two new conditions have arisen. In place of the 



