THIRTY-THIRD BlENNIAE SESSION 
i8 S 
Ten years ago the northwest was but an atom in its output of fruit 
compared with the volume produced in the United States. This year the 
northwest will market thousands of cars, and this quantity will continue t© 
increase for many years to come. So our problem of marketing is just in its 
infancy. Its solution will be a matter of evolution. Ten years ago the 
quantity of fruit shipped from the northwest was exceedingly small, its 
quality exceedingly attractive, therefore marketing was a simple matter. 
But as early as 1893 Hood River realized the necessity of co-operation and 
in that year organized the Hood River Fruit Growers Union. The associa- 
tion idea spread from this little valley to the other wonderful fruit sections 
of the northwest until nearly every district had its association. These 
associations have had their ups and downs like all other farmers’ organiza- 
tions. Co-operation in the United States is yet in its infancy. We must 
look to Europe for our education and training along this line. I am a firm 
believer in co-operation. Fruit must be scientifically sold and intelligently 
distributed, if the fruit grower or any particular secton expects to get th© 
actual market value of its product. 
Overproduction and Marketing. 
In 1912 the cry of over production was heard all otfer the United States, 
but even with the large yield in the year of 1912 I still firmly believe that 
it was not entirely a matter of over production but largely a matter of un- 
intelligent marketing. 
In the northwest in the year 1913 we made the biggest step in the market- 
ing problem we have ever made by organizing the North Pacific Fruit Dis- 
tributors, composed of 102 affiliated associations in the different fruit grow- 
ing sections of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. Today this is the 
biggest marketing organization for fruit that exists anywhere in the United 
States, and in a very short time its tonnage will far exceed that of any 
single concern handling fruit anywhere in the world. We co-operate all 
right at our end of the line but we will never have the right kind of co- 
operation to bring the best results to the producer until we have harmony 
of co-operation from the producer to the consumer. 
The Farmers’ Co-operative Societies in the little country of Denmark, 
poor as its soil is, have made that the richest nation per capita in the world. 
I have been informed that in the egg producing association there are 70,000 
members. They market most of the eggs through the Consumers Co-opera- 
tive League in England. This English Consumers League is composed of 
approximately three million members. Undoubtedly a meinber usually 
represents a family of from two to five persons, which would probably mean 
that ten million people or more are purchasing their supplies through this 
co-operative supply house, which sells at cost, plus expense, plus a very 
small reasonable margin of profit. It is an institution conducted for the bene- 
fit of its members. The result is that the egg producers of Denmark, so 5 
am informed, are returned 92% per cent of what the consumer pays. 
