American Agriculturist 
THE FARM PAPER THAT PRINTS THE FARM NEWS 
“Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man”— Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 112 
For the Week Ending December 1, 1923 
Number 22 
Opening The Door To Many Markets 
How The “Federated” Operates—A Radio Talk Broadcast From WEAF 
I HAVE before me a map of the United 
States. My attention is focused upon 
New York State with its annual produc¬ 
tion of $30,000,000 worth of apples, its 
$3,750,000 worth of pears, its $2,000,000 
worth of peaches, and its other fruits and 
vegetables valued in additional millions. The 
great wealth of the Empire State in its fruits 
and vegetables is an asset that vitally affects 
every consumer as well as every producer. 
The fruit must be marketed with as little 
waste in the marketing methods as modern 
brains and modern organization can devise. 
That efficiency means the pub¬ 
lic welfare—better returns to 
the growers for their labor, 
and investment, and more 
equitable prices to the con¬ 
sumers in our large cities. 
The producers of jthis im¬ 
mense tonnage of perishable 
products have a relatively 
short marketing period. In 
the case of apples it extends 
roughly from early August, 
until the following May, at 
which time the last of the fine 
winter apples are sold on the 
apple markets of the world. 
Several thousand of the 
leading fruit growers in the 
western part of New York 
State have been perfecting 
their marketing methods for 
the last few years, until now 
their organization — the West¬ 
ern New York Fruit Growers’ 
Cooperative Packing Associa¬ 
tion — has an annual output 
of 3,000 to 3,600 carloads for 
sale through national coop¬ 
erative channels. 
Following down on tl)e map 
into New Jersey, we find a 
similar situation prevails 
among the leading peach 
growers in the Garden State. 
Here the growers have organized into 
the Jersey Fruit Growers’ Cooperative As¬ 
sociation. This year they marketed approxi¬ 
mately 10 per cent of the commercial peach 
crop of New Jersey, and during the short 
period of from late July until late September. 
There is also in New Jersey the Garden State 
Potato Growers’ Cooperative Association, 
confronted with a short marketing season 
and the need of wide distribution. 
Turning north into the New England 
States our attention centers upon the great 
Aroostook County of Maine, noted far and 
wide for its production of famous Maine spuds. 
The cooperating growers in Maine—ap¬ 
proximately 3,100—have united into the 
Maine Potato Growers’ Exchange. Their 
tubers are sold over a marketing period of 
from early September, until Maine potatoes 
go off of the market in the spring. 
Transferring our attention now to the 
northern part of the Middle States, we see 
the location of the fruit and vegetable cen¬ 
ters in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and 
By W. H. BULLOCK 
Director, Department of Information, Federated 
Fruit and Vegetable Growers 
then to the left on the map the well-known 
potato regions of Minnesota, Wisconsin and 
the Dakotas. Many of the associations in 
these States, such as the Michigan Fruit 
Growers, which is made up of 26 local as¬ 
sociations, have been developed on a regional 
basis within the current season. The In¬ 
diana Farm Bureau Onion Growers’ Ex¬ 
change, now selling two-thirds of the com- 
Secretary Wallace studying- the products of the East at the recent Fruit Show. 
Left to right—C. S. Brigham. Commissioner of Agriculture, Vermont; Henry C. 
Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture; T. E. Cross, Chairman of the Exhibit Committee 
of the Apple Exposition; Berne A. Fyrke, Commissioner of the Department of Farms 
and Mai kets, New York. Successful Fruit Shows like this one, together with coop¬ 
erative activities like those described by Mr. Bullock in his radio talk on this page, 
are doing much to help farmers’ marketing problems 
mercial onion production in the State, is 
another .typical 'example. 
Shifting out interest now to the great 
northwestern apple regions of Washington 
and Oregon, we find the same problems. The 
apple growers have followed the fpur “eyes” 
of cooperation: Organize, Standardize, 
Merchandise and Advertise. They have made 
northwestern apples famous upon the mar¬ 
kets of the country. The development of 
cooperative organization in the northwest¬ 
ern territory is perhaps more pronounced 
that in the East, and a larger per cent of the 
growers are united into great regional coop¬ 
erative exchanges. Idaho is now coming 
in for its share of attention. The problem 
of a short marketing period and the, need 
for intensive, wide distribution and sale of 
their products is similar to that we have just 
discussed, with the exception that the mar¬ 
kets are not next door, as in the case of our _____ 
eastern friends, but are several thousand the country for a relatively short period of 
miles from the orchard packing houses. time. It needs as intensive a representation 
Following down through Utah and Colo- ( Continued on page 378 ) 
rado, we find the fruit and vegetable in¬ 
terest now organizing, and the citrus fruit 
growers of California already well developed. 
Our interest in Texas and through the 
Southern States centers for the moment upon 
the recently organized onion, tomato and 
other vegetable interests. Here again the 
producers are confronted with a relatively 
short marketing period. In Louisiana, Ar¬ 
kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama 
we see the geographical center of the most 
recent move to develop large organizations 
of strawberry growers, whose crop is mar¬ 
keted in six to eight weeks 
during the spring of the year. 
In Louisiana and Missis¬ 
sippi the story repeats itself, 
and in Alabama with its new- 
ly-popiflar Satsuma oranges, 
and in Florida with its great 
vegetable interests, we find 
the growers cooperatively or¬ 
ganized and looking to the 
markets of America for the 
sale of their crops. 
Coming north, we pass 
through the great watermelon 
belts of northern Florida and 
southern Georgia, where the 
growers have now organized 
to a point which controls the 
marketing of nearly 50 per 
cent of the commercial water¬ 
melon acreage in that terri¬ 
tory. Bearing in mind the 
organized apple growers of 
West Virginia, we have brief¬ 
ly covered the high spots of 
recent cooperative develop¬ 
ment among fruit and veg¬ 
etable growers in our circle of 
the United States. 
From the Atlantic to the 
Pacific Coast and from the 
Gulf to Canada, a great va¬ 
riety of fruit and vegetable 
products are being sold coop¬ 
eratively. The individual growers are or¬ 
ganized into their local associations, whch 
in turn have affiliated into State or regional 
organizations for the common good. 
Despite the variety of the products, sev¬ 
eral outstanding factors are apparent. The 
fruits and vegetables which we have men¬ 
tioned, all have a shipping season which ex¬ 
tends from a few weeks to a number of 
months, but in no case does it occupy the full 
twelve months’ period. While the shipping 
season is at its height, the products of our 
friends in New York, in New Jersey, in 
Maine or elsewhere around the country, must 
be distributed and sold upon a wide range 
of carlot markets. The marketing conges¬ 
tion which causes a glut by the dumping of 
products upon a narrow range of markets 
must be met by the cooperating growers. 
Each State or regional Exchange needs a 
full sales service upon the carlot markets of 
