135 



time they are turned over to the Union at 2 T \ cents per pound. It is 

 explained in the "Fruit Grower," from which I took that table, that from 

 that net profit must be deducted the cost of cultivation, picking, and 

 delivering to the Union. I consulted with some of the best informed mem- 

 bers of this convention before I formulated last night the profitableness of 

 growing fruit on that basis of cents, on the assumption of one hundred 

 and fifty pounds to the tree or fifteen thousand per acre, and while Mr. Block 

 was speaking I have made another estimate on another basis, and on the 

 experience of so well informed a man as Mr. Hatch. Taking the 2 t 8 q- cents 

 per pound as the result to you of all the classes of fruit that went to the 

 Fruit Union and that embraced everything except raisins and oranges, 

 your deciduous fruits, and it is the best data I think obtainable to-day 

 from which to generalize upon the fruit grown in this State. You take 

 that 2 T \ cents and let any gentleman in this room figure on it, he will find 

 the result to him net over 1 cent a pound over and above all cost to him. 

 Anybody who wants anything better than that must go into some other 

 business. That on the basis of fifteen thousand pounds per acre, $150 net, 

 and that that is the result of last year there is no gainsay. 



Mr. Block: Are you aware that this year's returns will be 60 cents a 

 hundred less than last year? 



General Chipman: The " California Fruit Grower " states that from the 

 best computation they can make of the results of this year it will be about 

 2\ cents net to the fruit grower. Now they told me they could not give me 

 the total results, but they gave me the average, and a large number of 

 shipments with the highest results and the like number with the lowest 

 results; some of them went as high as $1,400 to the car realized to the ship- 

 per; others resulted in loss, some $100, and some $50 to the car, but in order 

 to get at this question you must deal with the whole, and you will find the 

 statement of it in the " California Fruit Grower " of November tenth. 



Mr. Hatch: I would like to say as to the expenditures of the Fruit 

 Union this year, that the commission has been 10 per cent, which is at 

 least twice as much as is necessary, and that is one thing we want to reg- 

 ulate at our next annual meeting. We could sell our goods by the same 

 auctioneer we had this year at 2-J per cent, and we can get an efficient 

 broker, or agent as we call him, there, who will handle our goods to better 

 advantage undoubtedly than we have ever had them handled for our bene- 

 fit, for from 1 to l-§ per cent, and 1 per cent is more than is needed to carry 

 on the Fruit Union at this end of the line; so that will make a reduction of 

 50 per cent at least the coming year. In regard to the price derived from 

 the fruit shipped to the Union this year, I don't speak from figures, but 

 from what I have been informed in regard to the grapes this year, that 

 almost without exception they arrived in bad condition. Mr. Weinstock 

 showed me several letters in response from inquiries he had made from the 

 parties who had purchased the grapes at auction in Chicago, as to the rea- 

 son of the low price at which they were sold, stating that it was on account 

 of the bad condition of the goods. We know that there was a hot spell 

 that hurt our grapes, and that there was a rain that came upon them at 

 one time, and to those causes are to be attributed the bad condition of the 

 fruit. 



Mr. Hutchinson: I would like to ask what percentage of fruit raised is 

 fit to be shipped East? 



Mr. Hatch: In those localities where they make a specialty of raising 

 peaches for eastern shipment they can raise them all fit to ship, because 

 they will not leave one on the tree until maturity that is not fit to be ship- 

 ped. In other words, Mr. Smith will tell you that in Vaca Valley, where 



