136 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH ERUIT-GROWERS 9 CONVENTION. 



by my friend Russ Stephens yesterday can not stand a freight transpor- 

 tation to its market of one cent and fifteen one-hundredths, and that 

 even a transportation charge to a market 1,300 miles away of one cent 

 per pound will not prevent loss, that industry must turn its attention 

 to something else than the expansion of production. It must turn its 

 attention to a market, to the means of reaching it, and to holding that 

 market profitably. So the State Board of Trade concluded that the 

 best thing to be done by the fruit men of California is to stop talking 

 of expansion, the extension of plantations, and to devote itself to the 

 production of quality, to the standard packing of its fruit, and to 

 reaching a market that will take its product at a profit to the producer, 

 and that market when reached will be subject to expansion in its turn. 

 Let production stand where it is, then, and let us devote ourselves to a 

 profitable expansion of our market, and when that expansion of the mar- 

 ket has caught up with production, then naturally it will be business in 

 California to begin to talk about expanding production. But first catch 

 your market, let it expand up to the present supply that you have, 

 and when that has been done then every acre planted after that will 

 promise to its planter a profit after coming into bearing. So the State 

 Board of Trade has devoted itself to the fruit industry faithfully and 

 honestly in its statistical statements, but it has begun to encourage 

 other forms of rural industry in California with the same vigor and 

 energy and truthfulness and confidence with which it formerly encour- 

 aged the fruit industry, but standing ready to help it take care of 

 itself, as Mr. Briggs will tell you later on, standing up and resisting 

 the encroachment upon it threatened in the sulphur matter, enabling 

 it to reach its market, to reach a profitable disposition of its product, 

 but letting expansion wait' until the market has been found and has 

 profitably expanded up to our present capacity of supply. 



Now, in the first place, I think that it is highly necessary to study the 

 standardization of the pack. In that respect no one can estimate the 

 value of the work that is being done by Mr. Jeffrey. He is holding 

 meetings, which I have attended in many instances, among the fruit 

 growers, preaching to them the absolute necessity of observing commer- 

 cial honor in their pack. You must first have a pack that is of the 

 character and quality demanded by the distant market, and that char- 

 acter and quality must be carried to that distant market. You will not 

 be confronted when there with : " I have bought some boxes of Watson- 

 ville apples since they began coming into the market this season, and I 

 found the top layer splendid, but the other layers were a disappoint- 

 ment. " Let the growers organize. That has been talked to you here 

 and the example of the citrus growers of southern California has been 

 held up to you. Let the growers organize, let them make an ironclad 

 organization, but when they have made that let them understand that 

 they must not use the power of organization to force upon the packer 

 inferior qualities of fruit. A great many men feel that when they 

 belong to a powerful organization they can compel the packer and the 

 final factor, the consumer, to take what they choose to bring. You have 

 borrowed that from the labor unions. When the mechanic depends 

 upon the power of the union behind him and not his skill or fidelity he 

 will exert neither skill nor fidelity. We who live in cities know this to 

 our sorrow. But you must discard this leaf out of the policy of the 



