104 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
the natural evolvement to fit the condi¬ 
tions of California. The method is this; 
last year the exact figures that the Cali¬ 
fornia Exchange handled in oranges was 
5,440,000 and some odd boxes that rep¬ 
resented 56 per cent, of the total Califor¬ 
nia output as near as they could get com¬ 
plete record, and that would throw the 
crop between 9,000,000 and 10,000,- 
000 boxes. The estimate for this 
year is for a crop of 12,000,000 
boxes of or angles and they ' es¬ 
timate that the Exchange will market 55 
to 60 per cent. The officials of the Ex¬ 
change do not claim that their control 
will reach beyond 60 per cent., and Mr. 
Story, who is President of the Exchange, 
told me it was not wise for them to un¬ 
dertake to market more than this. He 
said that in order to make a success of 
this thing there must be competitive sell¬ 
ing, not competitive underselling, but 
competition to return a better price to the 
grower all the time. Competitive under- 
■selling, which means a cutting of prices, 
must be stopped. California has arrived 
at such a point that they are in condition 
to stop under quoting, and the Exchange 
desires to market no more than 60 per 
cent, of the crop, so that conditions may 
remain as they are today. Now the 40 to 
45 per cent, of fruit that is sold by the 
independents is marketed both by salaried 
associations and also agencies working 
by per box contract, and in some in¬ 
stances are affiliated with the Exchange; 
and most of it is marketed on f. o. b. or 
in transit basis or else a spot cash basis. 
This means that if a buyer is putting his 
money into the fruit, that fruit is go¬ 
ing where there is a demand. Under the 
system of cash buying and f. o. b. and in 
transit buying, that much of the goods 
takes care of itself, because it is going 
where there is a demand. Now the 60 
per cent, is the balance of the product, 
and it is up to the California Fruit 
Growers’ Exchange to take it and develop 
it into a paying proposition. Their num¬ 
ber of f. o. b. and in transit sales are al¬ 
most minimum. They have abandoned 
the f. o. b. and in transit sales almost 
entirely. They have the markets of this 
country extremely well guaged and they 
can sit in their offices and tell you just 
how many each market should take, and 
how .it will make the market waver if 
you give them any more, and how it will 
make the price come up if you give them 
a little less. 
Suppose the fruit goes to' Kansas City 
and the miarket is a little off. The buying 
trade is told the price is so-and-so. They 
look at the fruit and take it or reject it. 
If it is refused the man in charge of the 
selling end in Kansas City wires in to Los 
Angeles that the trade will not take it at 
the price he offered it to them. Then they 
may tell him to sell so many cars at the 
price he is offered and divert the other 
cars. Possibly they may divert the whole 
lot. They carry their goods all over the 
country, and the Washington Navel will 
stand it. There is no additional cost for 
freight. In other words, after the cars 
once get to Denver it costs no more to 
send a car to Boston than to Kansas City. 
In that way they distribute vast amounts 
of oranges, and at this present time it is 
a fact that they have every known market 
just about crowded without having to 
make /concessions on the price. They 
have studied this marketing question for 
years from every possible standpoint. It 
