COOPERATIVE CITRUS-FRUIT MARKETING AGENCY. 15 
THE LOCAL UNITS. 
The California Fruit Growers Exchange is at present (May 1, 1923) 
made up of 192 local packing units. Approximately 75 per cent of 
these are cooperative associations of citrus growers, incorporated 
with boards of directors for business purposes. Some large producers, 
individuals and corporations, pack the fruit from their orchards 
through their own privately-owned packing houses. In addition, 
commercial packing companies grade and pack the fruit of individ- 
ual growers at a fixed charge per box. A number of these concerns, 
as well as producers owning large orchards and operating their own 
packing houses, are members of the exchange and have the same 
status as the associations. 
Local cooperative associations are the foundation of the exchange 
system. The earliest organization of this kind preceded the incorpo- 
ration of the exchange by almost three years. They were created by 
the members of a community who considered their marketing prob- 
lems as being, first of all, local in character. 
The associations harvest the fruit of their members and prepare 
it for market. Frequently the fruit is hauled from the orchards to 
to the packing house in association motor trucks. Some associations 
preform certain cultural services for their members, such as pruning 
or fumigating orchards. 
The fruit is picked by association crews under the direction of a 
field foreman. Mexican labor is employed for the most part, although 
Japanese and Filipinos are also used to some extent. Americans, as 
a rule, accept this employent only as temporary work or to obtain 
experience which will fit them for more responsible positions in the 
industry. The picking of citrus fruit calls for careful supervision. 
There is the problem of holding harvesting expenses to a minimum; 
and, what is more important, the necessity of handling the fruit care- 
fully throughout the operation. Oranges and lemons are easily 
injured and such injuries are productive sources of decay. To secure 
rapid and at the same time careful work many associations pay their 
pickers on a "quality-quantity" basis. Under this system a man's 
daily wage depends upon both the quantity of fruit which he picks 
and the absence of injuries to the fruit. 
Association crews harvest oranges at a cost of 7 to 10 cents per box 
picked under present conditions, and lemons for 17 to 20 cents. 
Lemons are more expensive to pick than oranges, because it is neces- 
sary to go over the same tree several times during the year and select 
the fruit each time for both size and color. Picking costs for both 
lemons and oranges are nearly twice as high as they were five or six 
years ago, principally because of a higher wage scale. Investigations 
of the exchange indicate that on a packed-box basis the picking of 
oranges costs 13 cents and lemons 37 cents. The difference is caused 
by the loss through culling operations and, by shrinkage in curing. 
When fruit is hauled from the orchard to the packinghouse in trucks 
owned by the association, the net cost for this service to the grower 
is usually 2J to 3J cents per field box hauled. Exchange investiga- 
tions indicate that the average cost of hauling per. packet I box is 4£ 
cents for oranges and 5? cents for lemons. 
The packing of citrus fruit calls for a considerable investment in 
buildings and machinery. The investment of the associations studied, 
