Edible Products. 



138 



[February, 1909. 



State, the need of such a corporation was 

 apparent to Mr. Downe ; he has, there- 

 fore, been to no little trouble in collecting 

 information on the subject. From a 

 pamphlet issued by the California Fruit- 

 Growers' Exchange, forwarded by Mr. 

 Downe, the following is taken :— 



"Twenty-five years ago the annual 

 total shipments were scarcely twenty 

 carloads. Fifteen years ago the annual 

 shipments were approximately 4,000 car- 

 loads, or slightly in excess of a million 

 and quarter boxes (a box holds 2 cubic 

 feet). 



" Since that time there has been an 

 increase from year to year, until the 

 average of the last three seasons has 

 reached the vast volume of 30,00/) car- 

 loads, or 11,000,000 boxes yearly. The 

 net f.o.b. value of the crop of 1906 has 

 been conservatively estimated at twenty 

 million dollars. 



"When citrus fruit-growing in Cali- 

 fornia emerged from the stage of 

 experiment and past time into that of 

 profit-seeking, the problem of marketing 

 immediately confronted the growers. 

 They were thousands of miles from the 

 populous centres in which their fruit 

 must find consumers, and they had 

 practically no home markets nor agencies 

 through which they could convert it 

 into ready money at remunerative 

 figures. It is true there were speculators 

 iu the field, but their offers to buy were 

 at very low prices, and only spasmodic 

 at best. This is not strange as the 

 speculators were but go-betweens, and 

 the markets being undeveloped they 

 could only offer for the most part to 

 take the fruit on consignment for 

 grower's account. If passing the specu- 

 lator by, the grower sought relief by 

 consigning his produce to the market 

 himself, he was little, if any, the gainer. 

 These were the conditions in the early 

 nineties, when the citrus fruits of 

 California orchards were less than one- 

 tenth the present value. 



" Various expedients were resorted to 

 for the betterment of these conditions. 

 Speculators attempted to form a compact 

 to apportion among themselves the 

 territory where the fruit was grown, to 

 fix maximum prices to be paid for fruit, 

 and also to establish f.ob. prices, regular 

 credits and equalise distribution in 

 consuming markets. Growers and 

 speculators together sought to regulate 

 prices, consignments, and other im- 

 portant questions. The most disastrous 

 year so far as net returns were concerned 

 that the citrus fruit industry in this 

 State has ever experienced was 1892-3, 

 in Riverside and all other sections, where 

 there was any quantity of fruit to ship 



at the time, account sales in "red ink" 

 were received without number. In many 

 instances growers not only furnished 

 their entire crops for nothing, but were 

 also required to pay freight and packing 

 charges, which the gross sale of their 

 fruit did not cover. All of these efforts 

 to improve marketing conditions were 

 inadequate and short-lived- In the very 

 nature of things they could not be more 

 than partially successful, since the in- 

 terests of growers and speculators are 

 necessarily divergent on important 

 points. In several localities a tew 

 growers had associated themselves to 

 secure better packing facilities, and for 

 mutual protection. In some instances 

 these associations had marketed on a 

 mutual basis. 



"As a result of the above-mentioned 

 failure of speculative shifters to sell the 

 year's crop at fair prices, and particular- 

 ly stimulated by the association ex- 

 periences, large percentage of growers 

 sought to solve the vexed problem by an 

 enlargement of the association idea." 



" A Convention of Growers assembled 

 at the Chamber of Commerce, Los 

 Angeles, on the 4th April, 1903, the 

 declared purpose of the meeting being : 



"To provide for marketing of all 

 the citrus fruit at the lowest possible 

 cost under uniform methods, and in a 

 manner to secure to each grower a 

 certain marketing of his fruit and the 

 full average price to be obtained in the 

 market for the entire season." 



"Following the recommendations of 

 this Convention of Growers, organisation 

 of associations and district exchanges 

 was effected in all the principal citrus 

 fruit districts, the packing to be done by 

 the association at cost, and the marketing 

 through an executive committee, com- 

 posed of one member from each district. 

 This arrangement for the marketing of 

 the fruit continued during two seasons, 

 viz., those of 1893-4 and 1894-5, but not 

 being entirely satisfactory, on October 

 21st, 1895, the Southern California Fruit 

 Exchange was organised, since which 

 date the marketing of the fruit controll- 

 ed by the various district exchanges and 

 their associations has been conclusively 

 in the hands of the Southern California 

 Fruit Exchange, and its successor, the 

 California Fruit Growers' Exchange, 

 except during the period of seventeen 

 months, from April 1st, 1903, to August 

 31st, 1904, during which time the 

 Exchange interests combined in the sale 

 of their fruit with the principal non- 

 Exchange shipping interests under the 

 name of the California Fruit Agency. 

 The net results obtained during the 

 Agency period were not satisfactory to 



