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agement, let us briefly consider the advantages of such an arrangement 

 and contrast the results with those obtained under the present method. 



First of all the expenses would be greatly reduced. All supplies, 

 such as boxes, paper, nails, etc., would be bought in large lots from first 

 hands and at considerable saving. These would all be furnished to the 

 growers through their respective associations at cost prices. Again, the 

 work of loading cars would be performed by each association, and of 

 course, at absolute cost. Another item at which a great saving of 

 expense would occur would be in operating expenses. Under the present 

 system each of the fifteen or twenty shipping concerns duplicate the 

 expenses of the others, each having a separate office force and a separate 

 manager in charge of packing, soliciting fruit, etc., all of which costs a 

 great deal of money and which could be reduced to one set of expenses 

 instead of fifteen or twenty, as at present. A large amount of money 

 also would be saved to growers in commissions, as the organization 

 would be in a position to deal directly with houses in the East, and by 

 presenting a large amount of fruit could of course command the best 

 possible service at the lowest possible rates. In commissions alone the 

 saving to growers would, in my opinion, much more than cover the entire 

 working expenses of the organization. In various ways besides those 

 enumerated above much expense and loss could be saved. It is not at 

 all improbable that a large reduction, both of freight and refrigerator 

 charges, could be made were the transportation companies able to deal 

 with one large concern like the organization proposed, handling a vast 

 quantity of fruit. 



Secondly, in the matter of intelligent distribution of the fruit. The 

 various shippers who are now handling fruit hold no communication 

 with each other, and each is in absolute ignorance as to the quantity 

 the others are shipping or to what market any fruit is going except 

 what he ships himself. The result is that some markets are glutted 

 while others may be without sufficient supply. And again, under the 

 present method, it is a well-known fact that not over twenty or thirty 

 different markets are reached by direct carload shipments. There are, 

 however, about one hundred and twenty cities in the United States hav- 

 ing a population of over twenty-five thousand people, most of which 

 cities never received a carload of deciduous fruit from California, and 

 most of them, it is fair to suppose, could use the fruit to just as good 

 advantage as those to whom shipments are made. If the Northern and 

 Central California Fruit Exchanges were in full and successful opera- 

 tion, those markets would be supplied, thereby lessening the quantity 

 that would be shipped to certain other markets, relieving the over-stock 

 and securing better prices. Some have suggested that this distribution 

 can be arranged and regulated by an agreement on the part of the 

 present shippers; but I am firmly convinced that it is not a combina- 

 tion of fruit dealers that the growers require for their protection and 

 betterment. 



In the third place, restriction of shipment to conform with the 

 requirements of the markets would be made if the growers themselves 

 were shipping the fruit. The ordinary commission shipper naturally 

 has but one object, and that is to increase his business. To do this he 

 must solicit fruit for shipment, and the more he gets the larger his 

 business becomes. So long as the fruit brings freight charges he is safe, 

 no matter what becomes of the producer; the temptation, therefore, is 



