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particularly, of ripe fruit shipments that go forward from Sacramento. 

 That has become the center of shipments of that fruit. 



Mr. Hatch: I would like to say that the prices obtained for fruit shipped 

 East this year were larger than they have been during the life of the Fruit 

 Union, with the exception of grapes and some varieties of plums; except 

 some shipments of grapes, which were made two years ago from Santa 

 Clara or Santa Cruz County, which brought the man in debt several thou- 

 sand dollars on the shipment of six or seven cars. I think that was the 

 worst shipment ever made out of the State, but in most all cases where our 

 fruits have sold poorly in the East, it was on account of the bad condition 

 in which they arrived there. 



Mr. Butler: I think the Fruit Union has done a great thing for this 

 State, but their work is only in its infancy. One thing introduced by them 

 is the selling of fruits at auction, which is the method by which the Algeria 

 grapes and all Mediterranean fruits are sold. They first started to sell as 

 we have sold our grapes, but afterward all concentrated, and since then all 

 their fruits have been disposed of by auction, and as Mr. Hatch says, " My 

 experience- with the California Fruit Union this year is, that the general 

 prices realized have been better than ever before." 



Mr. Hatch: And I will answer that one reason for that was the better 

 service of the railroad company in getting them there on time. 



Mr. Butler: That is one of the most important points in this matter, 

 having the fruit go on stated time. The managers of the Fruit Union have 

 agents at different points and cities where fruit is to be sold, who are 

 notified when the shipment is made to them, giving them a full descrip- 

 tion of the fruit in that train, and these agents, anticipating the arrival of 

 the train, distribute catalogues to every buyer announcing that the train 

 started at a certain time and will arrive at such an hour and minute as 

 the passenger train is announced to arrive, and the buyers come expecting 

 to buy on that information. Now, then, if that train comes on exact time 

 those people are there and that carload is sold in a few minutes, and at a 

 certain price, for cash, as soon as it passes into the hands of these dealers; 

 the fruit is there and they vie with each other selling that fruit at the best 

 price and in the least possible time, and now the profits accrue to the one 

 that raises the fruit. It is now said that no fruit dealer in the East can 

 afford to be without California fruit. The necessity of the grower for pro- 

 ducing only the best fruits is apparent, because we pay as much freight on 

 account of poor fruit as on good, and we should require, if it is possible, to 

 have the railroad company take our fruit to the East on schedule time, so 

 that people can positively depend upon having the fruit there for sale at 

 the time advertised, and it will be an easy thing to sell our fruit. We 

 could raise ten times as much as we have now and distribute it all over 

 the East, in my opinion, having these years of experience, and find it easier 

 to dispose of that amount than it has been to sell what we have had in the 

 past. I have had recent letters from a gentleman who has passed ten years 

 of his life in the East Indies, and also in London, and he thinks we have 

 an opening there in which we can dispose of our fruit. It is well known 

 that Crosse & Blackwell are the largest dealers in canned and preserved 

 fruits in the world ; their reputation as a first class house is unequaled — 

 you have heard what Mr. Lubin said about the canned fruit that they 

 sold — now it is said by this gentleman that Crosse & Blackwell find their 

 greatest market in the East Indies; now let us find the goods that they 

 dispose of in the East Indies, it can be sent direct from here in a system- 

 atic manner, and when we get the reputation that the quality of our fruit 

 is as good as Crosse & Blackwell's we can certainly compete with them 



