out of it, and this they desired to prevent at all hazards; others believed that the ends of the Exchange could be accomplished for far less money than the budget of the manager proposed, and with no ill will to him, or question of his honesty or ability, desired some one of a more economical turn of mind; and feeling as they did, it was wisest to give them an opportunity to show what could be done with small expenditure. The result was as expected, that they did

nothing.

This feeling of some growers toward the manager of the Exchange and his plans very well illustrates the unwillingness of farmers to permit those serving them cooperatively to receive for their services any such compensation as competitive business offers for similar services; it also, possibly, shows the unwisdom of making any trained business man a responsible, salaried officer of a cooperative society at its beginning. An

*It seems impossible for the majority of farmers to believe that any one will actively promote cooperative movements except with the intent to profit by them. As a matter of fact, promotion of such work is always largely altruistic. In California, those engaged in it, if they devote their entire time, expect their expenses and a small salary to compensate them for the neglect of their own business. In this case the temporary manager was a person in fairly comfortable circumstances who neither sought nor desired the employment, and stipulated from the first that he would serve only until the right man appeared to go on with the work. This fact was publicly stated upon all proper occasions, partly in hopes that the announcement would bring out the right man, and partly to allay the suspicions of personal interest which were fully anticipated. It would not do. Members of the trade who were adverse to the movement circulated lies about the president and manager, which were generally believed, because these officers were necessarily personally unknown to the majority of the fruit-growers. As a matter of fact the president devoted a large part of his time for a year to the Exchange, paying even his personal expenses, with, as events proved, very severe loss from neglect of his own business. The manager did not lose so much because he had not so much to lose, but his neglect of his own affairs resulted quite seriously to him. Neither of these gentlemen have since had anything to do with cooperative work, except merely to cooperate, and probably neither could be induced to again accept responsibility in business cooperation of an important nature. Of course this is not the stuff that great cooperators are made of, but it is the stuff that most human beings are made of. Suspicion and ingratitude deprive the public of much service which would be gladly rendered by those who, while altruistic, are not altruistic enough to patiently endure much bad usage.

experienced man, knowing the detail of business, and its necessary cost, if he is honest, must make an estimate of expense which seems, to farmers, very extravagant; if he needs or desires the position, he will be tempted to make inadequate estimates, in order to encourage his people and retain his place. The most successful cooperative enterprises have grown from small beginnings, conducted by inexperienced men whose ideas expanded with experience. The circumstances of the California fruitgrower seemed to render it desirable to begin operations on a large scale; selling goods in large quantities, from first hands, requires a rarer ability and costs much more money than buying goods, or than selling at retail, and this is true whether the operations be conducted on a cooperative or competitive basis. For operations on this scale farmers are not well prepared; and when, as in this case, the management pointed out the detail of selling fruit as conducted by those in the trade, and estimated the necessary, but much smaller, expense of the same work done in the same way, but cooperatively, and wholly in the growers' interest, many at once lost confidence, and were inclined to listen to those who proposed to accomplish large results with trifling expenditure. If cooperation can accomplish this, it will be a great boon, but the danger to be apprehended in the attempt is the furnishing of an ineffective service, which will not satisfy those who are to support it, or be able to retain their business. The experience of the state Exchange also made it quite evident that it was more difficult to unite a large number of societies under a common head than to bring individuals into the local societies. The moment there is a feeling of strength, there is an unwillingness to cooperate. The local societies seemed to the small farmers who controlled them, perfectly able to stand alone; to this was added a certain amount of sectional jealousy. The Santa Clara societies, especially, felt that their district was the largest producer of dried fruit, and should be the headquarters of cooperative action. The Santa Clara societies, also, having enjoyed the reputation of leadership in cooperation, were unquestionably, although quietly, averse to the establishment of any state Exchange which should seem to put them in a

subordinate position. Their officers, generally, knew little oi the fruit interests of the state outside of their own valley, and were not moved by conceptions including all interests. The result of the whole movement was finally a suspension of active work on the part of the state Exchange, with the intent to let the growers of the state grow up to a comprehension of the proper work of such a body, the necessity of its prosecution, and the wisdom of uniting in the expense of sustaining it. Whether this will ever happen remains to be seen.

CHAPTER VII.

THE CITRUS EXCHANGES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

N all ages the orange grove has been the emblem of the beauty and the poetry of horticulture, and in truth there is not, in all cultivated nature, any sight more beautiful than it affords. To the stranger, coming with imagination already stimulated with glowing descriptions, the transition from the icy blasts and leaden skies of the eastern winter to the warm sun and the pleasant breezes of a February day in California, is very grateful, and the next day's drive among the laden orange groves completes the fascination, and makes the wayfarer a willing victim to the combined seductions of the climate and the landseller. The rise of southern California began with the completion of direct rail communication between Los Angeles and the East. The circumstances were propitious. The large Spanish grants which covered the most desirable lands had mostly passed into American hands, and were available for subdivision, and capitalists or strong companies, buying or bonding large tracts at low prices, could afford to spend large sums in attracting immigration. The owners of the new railroad, earnestly desiring traffic therefor, joined hands with the land speculators, and their combined efforts, in the course of two or three years, produced a landbuying and orange-planting craze, which attracted the attention of the world. The attractiveness and productiveness of the country were not overstated; indeed, it would be difficult to do so; the errors of investment which were made grew out of exaggerated impressions of the cheapness of cultivation, the certainty of large crops, and the assurance of the sale, at high prices, of any producible quantity of the fruit. With authentic statements before him, of orchards yielding many hundreds of dollars per acre, the newcomer of a few years since was in no condition to inquire into the drawbacks, if

any, or dispute the enthusiastic assertions that the world was and always would be clamoring for the product, and that the happy producer had only to name his price. And it seemed reasonable. Before their eyes they saw the great packinghouses thronged with workers, and the orchard owners watching from verandas the harvesting of their crops by those to whom they had sold them on the trees. Allured by these manifestations of success, and by the rapid building of the towns and cities which thrived by it, southern California was rapidly peopled by an exceedingly enterprising community of solid principles and sterling worth.

The fundamental error in the calculation of the citrus enthusiasts was in supposing that the phenomenal incomes of the early orange-growers could long continue in the face of the wide area of the earth adapted to orange culture, with sea transportation to America enough cheaper than any transcontinental movement ever could be, to overcome any duty to which the country would probably submit. The orange,

under favorable circumstances, is a great bearer, and it was only a question of time to fill vacant land with orange groves to glut the market. Of the special drawbacks I can not speak so well, as I have not myself raised oranges; I only know that much of what I have said in regard to the cultivation of deciduous fruits applies equally well to orange culture, and in a still greater degree to the cultivation and curing of lemons; there is no more poetry in ploughing orange groves than in ploughing cabbages; the care of a single variety, while simpler than that of a mixed orchard of deciduous fruits, is also more monotonous; the orange, while thriving wonderfully in suitable locations, does not do well everywhere, and there are thousands of acres of orange groves which should never have been planted, and which never can yield a profit; the crop is exhausting to the soil, and an extensive use of fertilizers is required; the annual water tax is a burden never to be avoided, and irrigation provokes the growth of weeds as well as of fruit. For some years it seemed likely that the scale insects would destroy the groves, and when, after many costly experiments, that pest was in a great measure overcome, the owners of many unprofitable orchards had become almost impoverished.