8 
Bulletin 108. 
Fowler and Manzanola withdrew and organized Associations of 
their own, then a Federation was perfected including these sev¬ 
eral Associations which provided a general marketing committee 
with representatives from each Association who were empowered 
to make the contracts with the commission men, thus uniform con¬ 
tracts were secured for the Valley. 
By this time, the cantaloupe industry had been the cause of 
a large increase in population and the large farms had been broken 
up into smaller tracts. Then, too, in 1899 a large number of 
field tests of sugar beets by farmers demonstrated the possibilities 
in the Valley, and the following year saw the construction of a 
factory at Rockyford, thus realizing the early hopes of the origi¬ 
nal promoters of the Valley. 
Many growers turned their attention to the new crop so that 
the tension of the cantaloupe situation was somewhat relieved, and 
cantaloupe growing has since become more profitable, the average 
price realized having gradually increased. It is true there have 
been seasons of high and low prices, influenced by various condi¬ 
tions which effect the marketing of any crop, such as over-produc¬ 
tion, quality, the abundance of substitute fruit, etc. 
At Rockyford the original Association, with amended by¬ 
laws, was continued and is still a well organized body of growers. 
The growers who had been previously identified as the “Kouns 
Party,” withdrew with others and reorganized, forming the “Kouns 
Party” of today. Their plan has been to ship exclusively on com¬ 
mission, each car being treated as an entirety and the returns pro¬ 
rated among the growers who shipped in the car. The plan has 
been popular with many growers and a number of Associations in 
the Valley have adopted it, shipping through the same commis¬ 
sion firm—H. Woods of Chicago. 
The Rockyford Association and those federated with it, since 
the disaster of 1898 have also resorted to the commission basis in 
general, shipping through the joint firms of Lyons and Coggins, 
the main difference being that in the Rockyford Association, the 
returns have been prorated, at first in daily pools and later in the 
season in weekly pools, instead of by the car as in the Kouns Party. 
The latter method although affording a quick account of sales, make 
the returns for each grower more subject to chance, since the 
particular car in which he ships may or may not encounter favor¬ 
able conditions. Thus in this plan there may be a variation in 
the returns which different growers may receive who have shipped 
the same day but in different cars. 
It might be well to state that up to the present time, there 
has been no classification as to quality there being but one grade 
of inspection. In the other plan, the returns for the day or week 
