140 



TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



no rose without a thorn, and the thorn in this case is the man who 

 refuses to join an association. In dealing with him, the broker prefers 

 to become a buyer, and in order to get his nuts at a price low enough 

 for speculative purposes, he naturally advises the fixing of a low price 

 by the executive committee, for, to secure the outside nuts, he must pay 

 about the same price received by the 'associations. Hence, so long as 

 any considerable percentage of growers remain outside the associations, 

 the interests of the brokers and growers will not be identical, but will 

 actually be antagonistic, and the inevitable result of this antagonism is 

 the fixing of prices below what the market would warrant, and all 

 growers, inside and outside the associations, are selling their walnuts 

 for less than the market would stand. If these outside growers would 

 all identify themselves with the associations, then the interests of growers 

 and brokers would be identical, and both parties would cordially unite 

 to set the price as high as market conditions would warrant, and which, 

 we believe, would be much above the present average price. 



The plan which I have briefly outlined has proved itself to be very 

 far in advance of the old method of individual marketing. It will 

 doubtless be improved on as the years go by, and as the outside growers 

 more generally unite with the associations, as they surely will do. I 

 think that not more than 25 per cent of the growers have failed to unite 

 already, and even they almost universally admit that the improvement 

 in prices and general market conditions is directly attributable to the 

 work of the associations. So powerful is the influence of the Walnut- 

 Growers' Executive Committee, that no walnuts are any longer sold in 

 the United States until the committee has announced its prices, or, if sold, 

 they are only sold subject to prices to be fixed by the committee. When 

 a little larger percentage of the growers unite with the associations, and 

 there follows a little more centralization of authority, then the power to 

 fix prices will only be limited by foreign competition and the conditions 

 and demands of the market. 



DECIDUOUS FRUITS IN THE SOUTH. 



By PROF. J. W. MILLS, of Pomona. 



It has been said by persons who are not posted that Southern Cali- 

 fornia is not adapted to deciduous fruit-growing. That is a broad 

 statement, not borne out by facts. It is true that certain lines of 

 deciduous fruit-growing have received a severe blow during the last few 

 years, owing to the long series of dry winters, and certain areas in 

 which it is safe or not safe to plant have been clearly defined. This 

 does not prove that the conditions in the south are not adapted to grow- 

 ing deciduous fruits; it only shows that we are in a better condition 

 than ever to make a success of it. 



