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II. The forms of associations should be incorporated bodies, for the 

 following reasons: 



First — That they may be a legal body with the least possible liability 

 to the individual. 



Second — For the purpose of owning the plant necessary for transact- 

 ing the business, whether for drying and selling or concentrating and 

 selling dried fruit, by paid-up stock subscriptions. 



Third — For establishing a credit .to obtain working capital for each 

 season's business. 



Fourth — Beyond this the whole method should be cooperative and 

 equitable. 



Cost of plant for drying and storing for marketing will vary from $18 

 to $30 per acre. The difference is occasioned by difference in cost of 

 drying-ground, by difference in cost of warehouse facilities, and by the 

 varied division of the fruits upon the acreage represented, as all one kind 

 of fruit requires more trays and more land than a variety of fruits 

 maturing at different times, as apricots, peaches, and prunes. It is 

 generally necessary to prepare for that kind of fruit of which there is 

 most, furnishing 1,000 trays 3 by 8 feet for each 75 tons and an acre of 

 land for each 1,200 trays. Warehouses or storehouses are best of brick 

 and are equally economical, when difference of insurance and the differ- 

 ence of shrinkage as compared with wood or iron are considered. The 

 cost of a brick warehouse, iron-roofed, 60 by 150 feet, two stories, is 

 $7,000, varying in locations, as material and labor varies. A wise policy 

 in building a plant is to start each department so that it can be indefi- 

 nitely enlarged without rendering useless what has been already done. 



An Exchange plant for concentrating dried fruit should be what con- 

 ditions demand. The Santa Clara County Exchange began with five 

 acres of land, 338 by 569 feet. It built a warehouse 156 by 60 feet (two 

 stories), with an annex 30 by 40 feet (two stories), and a boiler-room. 

 There passed through this building in the season of 1893, 6,200,000 

 pounds of fruit. This amount could not have been, cared for had it not 

 been that sales were made so that shipments followed receipts in rapid 

 succession during the first two and one half months. In the season of 

 1894 fruit has been held, and 3,000,000 pounds have been about the 

 capacity of the warehouse. The cost of this plant is $18,000. The land 

 cost $5,775. The land is double the amount required, and if one half 

 the amount had been purchased as favorably located, $15,000 would 

 have been expended. It, however, needs 250 feet added to the length 

 of the building, and an additional processing and packing-room 120 by 

 80 feet, one story. These additions would cost $13,000. Such a plant 

 would answer the demands for handling 800 cars of dried fruit, and 

 also provide facilities for shipping green fruit. The warehouse > is on 

 the line of railroad, as should be the case with an Exchange for dried 

 fruit, and also a drying association, where it will at the same time serve 

 equally well the growers who deliver their product for drying. How- 

 ever, green fruit should always be delivered at a point where the average 

 distance will be least for the benefit of the fruit itself. 



III. In all cooperative associations, every person who is to deliver his 

 fruit, whether dried or green, should make it known, with the amount and 

 kind estimated, at the earliest possible period. The necessity for this is 

 that the market is very variable, sometimes coming early and some- 



