TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS* CONVENTION. 



75 



If the programme of the morning has been carried out — and it is 

 another misfortune of mine that. I was not able to be here earlier — the 

 fruit is now cured and on board the cars. I have no doubt it was well 

 done up to that point, because, as Mr. Berwick has told you, nobody 

 knows better, if indeed anybody else so well as Californians, how to 

 grow the fruit and how to prepare it for market. It has long ago been 

 demonstrated that the climate and the soil and the men of California 

 are particular^ and peculiarly adapted to grow the most luscious fruit 

 on the globe and to get it ready for market. We always compliment 

 ourselves, you know, in this way. It makes us feel good, and it does 

 nobody else any harm. • 



Now, after the fruit is on board the cars, the real difficulties begin. 

 Years ago it was discovered by the growers of these fruits in California 

 that while it was a very great advantage to grow good fruit and to pre- 

 pare it well for market, there were still serious difficulties to contend 

 with. Having discovered this, various methods were attempted to 

 successfully market the crop. 



Early in the history of the citrus fruit industry of California, when 

 there were only a few thousand carloads in the whole State, the difficulty 

 began to present itself, as it always does with the attempt to market 

 any perishable product, especially when that product is located a long 

 way from the consumers, as is our California citrus fruit. Efforts were 

 made by the commercial and speculative packers to inaugurate a system 

 of handling, to get together in some form of agreement among them- 

 selves by which they would avoid the disasters of competition and inde- 

 pendent operating. This was not very successful. A little later a 

 portion of the growers organized themselves into what was called the 

 Fruit Exchange, and sought, by methods under their own control, and 

 by a machinery absolutely at their own domination and dictation, to 

 market their products. Into this organization was gathered probably 

 half of all the growers in Southern California and controlling approxi- 

 mately half the product. This was measurably successful. You will 

 pardon me if say that I believe that for years that organization was the 

 only safeguard of the citrus fruit-growers of California. It was the 

 only circumstance, it made the only condition, of possible successful 

 growing of citrus fruits and converting them into money. But it was 

 only measurably successful, because it did not draw to itself all or 

 nearly all of the growers. A large proportion of the growers never 

 identified themselves with the organization. In consequence, there were 

 various methods of trying to do the business. The individual grower 

 shipped on his own account, or consigned to the market. Some of them 

 sold fruit to the commercial or speculative shipper. These various ship- 

 pers were operating, as I have said, on an individual basis. Last year I 

 think there were more than seventy-five of them in the field in addition 



