497 
Federated Growers Meet 
National Marketing Co-op’s First Year a Success 
F IVE or ten years By M. C. 
ago a nation-wide 
cooperative agency for the distribu¬ 
tion of fruits and vegetables, owned and 
managed by farmers, would have been 
considered an almost impossible dream. 
To-day it is an accomplished fact. 
Twenty-five thousand growers in 39 
States, the membership of about 50 
member cooperative associations and 
exchanges, sold and distributed 33,510 
cars of these perishable products to 772 
cities and towns in 1923. Ninety-three 
per cent, of this business was done on an 
F. O. B. basis, on the whole with quite 
general satisfaction to the grower mem¬ 
bers and with a small surplus at the end 
of the year. 
Started on Strong Foundation 
This rather remarkable result for the 
first year of operation, was obtained 
through the Federated Fruit and Vege¬ 
table Growers, Inc., which has just con¬ 
cluded its first annual meeting in Chicago. 
It was made possible by the good ground 
work laid by the national organization 
committee appointed by the American 
Farm Bureau Federation in 1921, by 
the purchase of the going business of 
nearly 30,000 cars of the then North 
American Fruit Exchange, by good sales 
management, and by the fine support 
given by its member cooperatives. The 
guiding hand of so experienced a general 
manager as Arthur R. Rule was also no 
small factor in its success. The repre¬ 
sentatives of the member cooperative 
associations and exchanges who met in 
Chicago to hear the first annual reports 
of their officers and employees, to elect a 
new Board of Directors and Executive 
Committee and to make plans for the 
future came from many States and rep¬ 
resented many products. 
Covers the Whole Country 
At this assemblage growers of Cal¬ 
ifornia oranges, Texas onions, Idaho 
peaches and prunes. Northwestern apples 
and Michigan grapes discussed their 
common problems and interests with 
growers of Arkansas strawberries, Florida 
vegetables, Georgia watermelons. New 
Jersey apples and potatoes, and Illinois, 
Virginia and Western New York fruit. 
New Jersey fruit and potato growers were 
represented at the meeting by C. B. 
Lewis and H. W. Jeffers and Western 
New York fruit growers by the writer. 
The reports of the staff and the discus¬ 
sions which followed brought out many 
points themselves worthy of a page of 
discussion, but which space will not at this 
time permit repeating. However, Amer¬ 
ican Agriculturist readers are entitled 
to have at least a brief summary of the 
high points in the year’s business of this 
new and successful enterprise, which 
undoubtedly points the way to other 
similar national agencies. 
Handling Big Volume of Business 
The first fact which impressed an 
interested observer whose fruit is being 
marketed by this agency was the sub¬ 
stantial tonnage which the organization 
handled during its first year, and that this 
represented a growth of ten to fifteen 
per cent, over the business of the old 
North American Fruit Exchange during 
the previous year. The continuance of 
this healthy growth is practically assured' 
by the recent addition to the membership 
of the business of the Texas onion 
growers, the Georgia and North Carolina 
peach growers, the Florida potato grow¬ 
ers’ associations and others. Thirty-three 
thousand cars of fruits and vegetables 
probably represents a money value of 
about $25,000,000. Approximately thirty 
Per cent, of the business was contributed 
by potatoes, about twenty-eight per cent, 
by apples and about twenty-four per cent, 
by peaches and pears, the remainder being 
fliade up of oranges, onions, watermelons 
and other products. And yet the 
Federated handles only _ about four per 
BURRITT cent, of the tonnage 
of perishable fruits 
and vegetables in the U. S., so there is 
plenty of room for further growth. 
Much additional volume can be handled 
by the present organization, and such 
volume would help materially in reducing 
the cost of distribution and in improving 
the service. 
Handling Produce Economically 
That this amount of business was 
handled in a year of high costs under 
uncertain conditions and in the first year 
of operation as a cooperative, not only 
without a deficit but with a small but 
substantial reserve and revolving fund 
of $36,343.38 was the next fact that 
impressed one favorably. This was 
accomplished also in the face of a heavy 
reduction in the probable tonnage ex¬ 
pected at the beginning of the year, due 
to very unfavorable weather conditions 
in the South, which necessitated a 
vigorous pruning of expenses in the 
middle of the year. This showed that the 
management could economize when it 
became necessary, and tends to give 
confidence in the management of the 
organization. Treasurer W. W. Pickard 
deserves much credit for the handling of 
his part of the Federated’s work during 
the past year. 
Giving Good Service 
The prices received by the grower are 
always large factors in measuring the 
success of any cooperative undertaking. 
No one attending the annual meeting of 
the Federated could fail to be struck with 
the general satisfaction of its members 
with the sales and distribution service 
which they had received. Of course not 
every one was pleased. That would be 
impossible. There were many construc¬ 
tive suggestions for the future. On the 
other hand, many members were enthu¬ 
siastic in their praises of the service. 
Among these were the growers of Sowega 
(Southwest Georgia) melons, Satsuma 
(Alabama) oranges. Inwood (Virginia) 
apples, and Wenoka (Wenatchee-Oka- 
nogan, Washington) apples. This satis¬ 
faction was formally expressed by the 
meeting in a resolution approving the 
policies and management of the F. F. & 
V. G. during the past year. 
Another impression gained at the 
meeting was the evidently conservative 
but at the same time constructive outlook 
of both membership and management. 
Members want to tell other cooperatives 
of the worth of the Federated Service. 
Some wanted the volume handled doubled 
next year but this was generally thought 
to be too rapid growth. The Sales 
Manager, John Deegan, to whom much 
of the credit for the excellent sales 
service should go, also sounded this note 
and made several constructive suggestions 
for increasing the efficiency of the sales 
service. Among these were the further 
expansion of the chain store and the 
small town business, replacing more 
brokers with salaried salesmen in the 
destination markets and helping retailers 
to better merchandizing practices. He 
stated that the trade generally looked 
upon Federated products as having high 
standards of quality and pack. 
Officers Elected 
Twenty-one directors were elected, 
sixteen from the membership and five at 
large. Henry Morgenthau, Jr., publisher 
of the American Agriculturist, was 
one of the latter. The directors chose as 
officers for 1924 the following: President, 
H. W. Jeffers of New Jersey; 1st Vice- 
President, C. P. Earley of California; 
2nd Vice-President, J. L. Benton of 
Georgia; Secretary, C. B. Lewis of New 
Jersey; and Treasurer, W. W. Pickard of 
New Jersey. Messrs. Jeffers, Earley and 
Lewis were also elected members of the 
executive committee together with A. O. 
Eckert of Illinois and M. C. Burritt of 
New York. 
Do You own G. L. F. Stock? 
A six per cent dividend will be paid to 
G. L. F. shareholders in June. Checks are 
now being written. There are several hun¬ 
dred shareholders who have changed thein 
addresses and cannot now be located. 
“THE G. L. F. SHAREHOLDER ”, 
an eight-page report, is being mailed on 
May 20th to all G. L. F. stockholders on 
record on April 1, 1924, for the triple pur¬ 
pose of: 
1— reporting on the present financial 
condition of the G. L. F. 
2— announcing the details of the 1924 
feed pool, and 
3— checking the address of shareholders. 
WATCH FOR “THE SHAREHOLDER ’* 
If you do not receive “The G. L. F. 
SHAREHOLDER ” by June 1, 1924, it 
means that your address is wrong on the 
books of the G. L. F. and that you will not 
receive your dividend check. 
Watch for “ THE SHAREHOLDER,” 
and if you do not get it, write 
THE COOPERATIVE G. L. F. 
EXCHANGE 
Executive Office Ithaca, N. Y. 
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in AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
