COOPERATIVE CITRUS-FRUIT MARKETING AGENCY. 33 
is, box shook, tissue wraps, labels, nails, etc. The business now trans- 
acted for its members approximates $1,000,000 per month. The 
operating expenses of the Fruit Growers Supply Co. nave ranged from 
1.3 to 2 per cent of its total sales. 
The supply company owns timber tracts in Lassen and Siskiyou 
Counties, Calif., and in Jackson County, Oreg. (See fig. 9.) Approxi- 
mately 70,000 acres are owned, upon which is standing 1,500,000,000 
feet of virgin timber. In addition, in excess of 1,000,000,000 feet of 
timber is held under contract with the United States Government on 
the Lassen and Klamath National Forests. Two mills are operated 
with a combined annual capacity, if required, of 150,000,000 feet. 
The requirements of the members of the California Fruit Growers 
Exchange total about 100,000,000 feet per year. The supply com- 
pany mills, therefore, could supply the total requirements of its mem- 
bers should necessity arise. In actual practice, however, it is found 
more economical to sell the better grades of lumber in the open mar- 
kets, remanufacture the lower grades of lumber into boxes, and repur- 
chase, with the money available from the sale of upper grades box 
shook manufactured by other mills from their low-grade lumber. 
Paper wraps, nails, labels, and other packing-house supplies are 
purchased by the supply company for its members on the open mar- 
ket, dealing for the most part directly with the manufacturers. Ap- 
proximately 5,000 tons of tissue wraps alone are annually purchased 
for its associations. Because of advantages obtained from volume 
purchasing, a very large amount of orchard supplies, such as ferti- 
lizers, fumigation and spraying supplies, frost-prevention equipment 
and supplies, and cover-crop seed, are purchased for supply company 
members. Approximately 25 per cent of the business is in orchard 
supplies. 
Because advantage is derived from having a purchasing represent- 
ative located in the central markets, a considerable amount of sundry 
purchases is made. This is purely a service feature and is maintained 
for the accomodation of the associations and their members. It is 
not planned to expand this phase of the purchasing, because the sup- 
ply company recognizes that the growers must have local stores which 
can not exist unless they are patronized. The aim, therefore, is to 
maintain the purchasing of sundry supplies by the supply company 
only as a special service to the associations and their members. 
The bud-selection department of the supply company performs a 
service of great value to the growers, because it deals with the very 
foundation of the industry. Buds intended for use in producing 
nursery stock are selected by competent men from trees that are 
known to have produced a high yield of fruit of a desirable quality 
over a period of years. Accurate records of the " performance" of 
each tree from which bud wood is selected are kept by the depart- 
ment, or by agencies cooperating with it. Supply company buds nave 
come to be a standard requirement, and the yield of California citrus 
trees of the grade of fruit produced is being gradually improved 
through the activities of the bud-selection department. 19 
'9The method of increasing the yield of fruit trees and improving the quality of the fruit through the 
selection of bud wood from parent trees of known performance was developed in California by A. I). 
Shamel.Bureauof Plant Industry. United States Department of Agriculture. TheresultofMr. Shamels's 
investigations have been published In Farmers' Bulletin 794, Yearbook Separate 813, and Department 
Bulletins 623, 624, 697, 813, and S15. 
75901°— 24 5 
