136 TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



all labor of this kind is very valuable to the producer and should be 

 fully compensated. 



Co-operative marketing was forced upon the citrus-growers because of 

 the rapid increase of their product; but while the dried fruit product is 

 very large and increasing, the producers seem to be at sea, so far as any 

 concerted method of marketing is concerned. The walnut-growers have 

 made more progress, but seem disposed to stop much short of the position 

 they ought to occupy. 



Nothing has been devised, so far, which gives as good results as the 

 Exchange plan of marketing, either in walnuts or in dried fruit. The 

 walnuts which have been marketed in that way during the past five 

 years have averaged the growers more money than by any other method 

 now in operation. 



The local association fixes a price which the Exchange agents take as 

 a minimum price, and by judicious handling and smaller selling charges 

 succeed in paying the larger price. 



It may be said that the growers do not get the money as soon as by 

 the f. o. b. plan, but any one can get money for walnuts f. o. b. by paying 

 from $50 to $200 per car for that privilege, the Exchange prices frequently 

 being that much above the f. o. b. price, and payments are not delayed 

 more than twenty days. This is a rate of interest which should satisfy 

 the most exacting. 



Some extracts taken from the last report of the Anaheim association 

 will serve to illustrate this, when it is remembered that the price estab- 

 lished on walnuts was: No. 1 softshells, 10 cents per pound; No. 2 soft- 

 shells, 8 cents; No. 1 hardshells, 9-J cents, and No. 2 hardshells, 7-§ 

 cents, with a discount of 6 per cent to the selling agents. 



The report read as follows : Paid to growers : For No. 1 softshells 

 $9.87^ per 100 pounds; for No. 2 softshells, $7.55 per 100 pounds; for 

 No. 1 hardshells, $9.5H per 100 pounds; for No. 2 hardshells, $7.45 per 

 100 pounds. Also a reserve of 5 cents per 100 pounds was retained 

 from net proceeds. These walnuts were all sold by the agents of the 

 Southern California Fruit Exchange at prices ranging from 10 cents to 

 12 cents f. o. b. California, for No. 1 softshells, and, as appears from the 

 report, the growers received the benefit in prices which have never been 

 paid to growers before by any association. 



The Anaheim association takes the walnuts from the grower as they 

 come from the orchard, and does the bleaching, grading, etc., at a cost 

 of 18 cents per 100 pounds, which is rather more than the cost to some 

 associations having larger crops to handle, and this cuts down the net 

 price by the amount of their expenses above that of other more favorably 

 situated associations, and makes a very noticeable difference where the 

 growers grade and bleach for themselves. 



If the Anaheim growers had done their own bleaching and grading 



