— 150 — 



process is to keep the fruit at its normal temperature so it is not ex- 

 posed to so great a change as is the case when it is taken from refrigera- 

 tion at a temperature of 45° and exposed for sale in a temperature 

 from 80° to 90°, 



It is useless to add that the process should reduce the cost of trans- 

 portation fully one half. 



No one being present who could throw any further light on the sub- 

 ject, that and the Perkins process were continued for discussion until 

 the afternoon session. 



FRUIT SHIPMENTS. 



By P. E. Platt, of Sacramento. 



It will not be denied by even the most credulous or the most sanguine 

 that the business of shipping and disposing of California deciduous fruit 

 in the East, as at present and for some time past conducted, is most dis- 

 couraging to the producer. More than that, the very existence of this 

 grand and growing industry is threatened, and must come to an end 

 unless a decided improvement can be made. 



With all due respect to the few commission shippers who have made 

 a fortune out of the business, and who will continue to make money as 

 long as the fruit intrusted to them brings the freight charges, it still 

 remains true that the business is a disastrous one, and that it is in very 

 bad shape. And yet it cannot be said that every one suffers who touches 

 the business. Quite the contrary. A number of good and deserving 

 people are quite considerably benefited. 



Let us see. The men who plow and cultivate the orchards for the 

 grower get their wages all right; the pruners are paid for their work; 

 then some considerable money is paid to the men who furnish expensive 

 washes for the trees, and to those who apply them; later the fruit must 

 be thinned, and this furnishes labor for an army of wage-earners, who 

 look to the grower for their money; finally, the fruit is ready to pick, and 

 that work puts more money into deserving hands; then the box factory 

 makes a profit, and expects its bill for boxes to be paid, first for the 

 picking boxes and then for those to ship the fruit in. Paper to wrap 

 the fruit in costs money, and is a very important item. The packers 

 come next, and a large gang of autocratic coolies dictate how many 

 hours they will work, and how much fruit they will pack for $1 25 a 

 day. (It is fair to say, in passing, that white men and women can do 

 this work, and in the near future will, I believe, do it all.) After the 

 fruit is packed the grower must haul it to the cars, and this costs him 

 time and money; then a new set of hands receives it, and the producer 

 pays them to load it in the car. He pays a commission man at this 

 end of the line a percentage to ship the car, and another one at the 

 other end a percentage to receive it. Arrived at the destination 

 the fruit is turned over to an auctioneer, who makes a profit and 

 enables the auction house to declare a suitable dividend to the stock- 

 holders at the end of the season. The auctioneer sells it to a jobber, 

 and he in turn makes a profit when he sells it to the retailer, and the 

 retailer, some claim, makes another profit equal to all the others when 



