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them. The brokers charge them so much for picking them, and so 

 much for packing them, and so much for stemming them, and so much 

 commission for selling them, and they advance the money in May upon 

 the crop. By the time the raisins are dried and in the sweat-boxes we 

 have a load to carry such as we cannot shake off. When the brokers 

 get possession of the goods they pack them and ship them East 

 upon consignment, attaching a draft to the bill of lading, and 

 draw against the bill of lading. They are thus doing business 

 on the farmer's capital. These commission brokers are in antag- 

 onism with each other — each one fighting for trade here and for 

 trade in the East. It often happens that two or three carloads of goods 

 are sent to a town that cannot take but one, and the fruit has to be 

 sold for what it will bring on an overstocked market. Yet it has been 

 found almost impossible to get the growers into any sort of a combi- 

 nation by which they can manage their own business. Now, this con- 

 dition of things will be all over the State in relation to prunes. In our 

 locality we are not in the prune industry yet; our trees are young; but 

 that country can raise twice as many prunes per acre as any part of 

 Santa Clara Valley that I was ever in. They have got the largest 

 raisin vineyards in the world, and they have got one of the largest 

 prune orchards, if not the largest. When those trees come into bearing, 

 unless we can form some sort of an organization by which we can coop- 

 erate for the purpose of handling, we will be in the same position in 

 regard to the prune industr}^ that we are to-day in regard to the raisin 

 industry. I have talked to the raisin growers time and again. But it 

 seems they can never be got to see the necessity of standing together. 

 I have become discouraged and disheartened. Any plan is better than 

 that of consignment. This year we undertook a plan by which we 

 thought we could get out. We tried to mortgage our crops, but the 

 banks would not advance money on then. Then we said that we would 

 give a bond and bind ourselves to hold prices up and not to ship the 

 goods except at such and such prices. The growers put up bonds of 

 $10,000 apiece and we got 1,800 cars into the combination, but farmers 

 holding 1,200 cars stood out and broke the matter up, when we thought 

 we had it all secured. Now we are at sea, with no price at all upon 

 our fruit, every man coming in and selling for what he can get. That 

 is the condition of the raisin business. You have been talking 

 about prunes and other dried fruit; but unless you can get up an organ- 

 ization that will embrace the whole State, your efforts will not accom- 

 plish much, because some farmers have more fruit than they have sense. 

 I fear it will come by and by to a question of the survival of the fit- 

 test. That will cut me out, and I don't like it. [Laughter.] Now, if 

 there is any man here who can say something or do something that will 

 wake these farmers up to the necessity of cooperation, I would like to 

 have him get to work. Something has got to be done, and done this 

 season. We cannot put it off another year. Any one of these plans 

 which have been suggested is better than none. If the raisers of fruit 

 had a little common sense and would stand together, they could com- 

 mand the markets of the world; they could send their goods to Europe, 

 to Australia. But without combination, we have got to look bank- 

 ruptcy in the face. We in the raisin industry are going there, sure, 

 unless we form some combination that will save our raisins. And those 

 who are in the prune industry are in the same fix. Now, you may think 



