86 



OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



year, these dealers will make especial efforts to increase their sales of 

 cured fruit. By having under one control all, or nearly all, of the cured 

 fruit on this Coast, a more economical and a much more systematic plan 

 of advertising would he inaugurated by the producers. Agents could be 

 employed in every Eastern State and in foreign countries to distribute 

 fruit in small packages, to teach people how to cook it, and thus assist 

 in creating a taste and desire for our cured fruit. Granges and farmers' 

 clubs could be induced to handle a large amount of fruit. Through 

 these various agencies, properly directed as they would be by the 

 association, the consumption of cured fruit could be quadrupled in a 

 very short time. The board of directors would employ a first-class 

 business man as general manager. He would cause the fruit to be 

 distributed in such a manner as not to glut any market and yet keep all 

 fully supplied. He could obtain the cheapest possible rates of trans- 

 portation, and he, would probably be able to have the present unequal, 

 unfair rebates abolished. As another result of the concentration of 

 fruit, the manager, or the individual grower, could readily obtain money 

 to carry on business at a very low rate of interest, probably at six per 

 cent or even less. The manager would undoubtedly have every facility 

 at his command for obtaining just such accurate information as is 

 needed in managing the fruit business. Frequent consular reports 

 would be at his service, for he would be the representative of a great and 

 influential body of people. We now have each year a large amount of 

 small and usually defective prunes, which ought not to be put upon £he 

 market as cured fruit. All prunes which are graded above one hundred 

 to the pound, and perhaps all above ninety to the pound, ought to be 

 treated as a by-product. If all of this defective fruit is controlled by 

 this association, it may be crushed, pressed into blocks, and used for 

 hog feed, for which purpose it is worth, at least, a cent a pound. Other 

 ways and means will be devised for utilizing all fruit products that are 

 now wasted or sold at a loss. 



In short, if this association is organized, it means to the producer 

 less friction, less worry, less expense, and greater profits; to the con- 

 sumer, cheaper and better fruit; to the packer, a larger and more satis- 

 factory business. Shall we organize? Not while the senseless notion 

 prevails that a price may be fixed for our fruit and a market found for 

 all of it, by getting the grower to sign an agreement not to sell fruit 

 below a certain price, and then allow him to handle and sell it himself. 



In closing I quote a paragraph from the " Modern Farmer," by 

 E. F. Adams: 



"As these pages are being printed, there is in progress a more ambi- 

 tious cooperative effort than I have known of elsewhere, in connection 

 with marketing. This is nothing less than the organization of a Pacific 

 Coast Prune Association, whose object is to combine under one head all 



