The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1912.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 January 1913, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY LEVIN. TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1912.

In lhc.se days of eo -opera t ion I amongst New Zealand l'i uitgrower.s. lor mutual advantage. the experience.- of ( lie poinoloei.~ts of o. her conntrie-: their vultures and th:"" experiments- should prove holpM l r roin the ray in January. 18IS. when .ji illn \Y. Marshall discerned in the co'.irsc nf a mill-race the iirsi gold of California thai country hecame the land of gold. the goal of treasure seekers Iroin all parls of the world. Nevertheless, the golden wealth of California is much inferior in value to thai ol ii* agricultural produce, .•specially ot its fruil. Jt is siiflicient to point out that in I.HIO its citrus crop alone was valued at" 7!in.000 doilais. a sum far exceeding Ilia! ef the out-put of gold in the •..•"ne year, which was only 111.<]•>.Ml) dollars and the annual amount of which from ISIS onwards has | averaged only dollars. The mild clinmte and the fortuity of the noil have certainly greatly favoured the development of fruit l (Milllire, hui it would never liave readied its present prosperous condition hut; for the persevering efforts of the cultivators united in cooperative .societies. Such is ill.' theme of an article in the October number of' the liulletin 'of (lie Bureau of T^ooiiomio and Social Intelligence (published by the International Institute of Agriculture). The author, in proof of this statement. describes the ditiieulties of fruitgrowers in California before their union in co-operative societies. Distant as they were, thousands o! miles, from the great centres of consumption of the Atlantic coast, g uorant of tin l conditions of the market .and the requirements of the public, tfiev wore forced to forward their produce at haz-ard or entrust it to middlemen and .speculators often far from conscientious. Threatened by complete failure, they at length combined, thus enabling themselves to confront their didieulties. distrust on the part -of the buyers and the selfishness of rivals. The "real C'alifornian co-operative societi's ni-ny now be considered as models of their kind. Tn the article of the bulletin above-mentioned, there is * description of the California Fruit Growers' Exchange, a tvpical example. This exchange, which .sells n large proportion of the citrus crops of California, is an association of associations which have branches even in the remotest, districts of the State. The smaller local .associations are united in the District Exehanges. which in their turn send representatives to the Central Exchange. The fruit is forwarded to the markets hy the Central Exchange according to information continually received by telegraph or telephone from agents to whom is entrusted the executive part, so to say. of the sales. Thus the distribution of the fruit among the centres of consuinp tion corresponds exactly to the demand, with the even regularity of the circulation of the blood in a sound organism. The excellence of the organisation is shown by the following figures. During tlie seven years from 1905 to 1911 the Californian Fruitgrowers' Exchange sold about cases of citrus fruit "of the value of 89.500,0D0 dollars. Thirty years ago the .annual exportation of CaHfornian oranges did not. exceed a few scores of wagon loads: now it is tens of thousands. The co-operative societies mav he justly proud of their contribution to this great progress.