USA > California > Fresno County > History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I > Part 28
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Experience next demonstrated that a twelve months was too brief a period of organization but evident was it also that this was the best that could be hoped for. The industry would have to become sufficient unto it- self. Growers must do their own packing, their own advertising, their own selling, Kearney went so far as to demand that the growers do their own financing. These were things for the future. Lack of faith in each other was the great weakness in these early efforts of the growers to come and stay together.
The average price of raisins to the producer, fluctuating as manipulated by the speculating commercial packer, was at one time and for ten years or more seventy dollars a ton. With associated cooperation and control, marketing conditions were improved and cheapened, consumption increased and prices enhanced with the result of seventy-seven dollars and fifty cents per ton for Muscats, about eighty-five dollars for Sultanas, and about ninety- five for Thompson's Seedless. Under ordinary conditions there is a profit to the grower in selling at three cents a pound. Yet a time was when rais- ins found no market, growers fed them to the chickens, to the hogs, the horses and the cattle and vineyards were uprooted so discouraging was the outlook. As indicative of the spirit of the times and the apparent future hopelessness of the industry may be reproduced this interesting publication of twenty years ago:
"P. P. Brooks, living eight miles west of Fresno on Kearney Avenue is feeding raisins successfully. He said to a Republican re- porter :
'Barley is worth thirty dollars a ton and raisins from eighteen dollars to thirty dollars. It is difficult to sell good raisins for over twenty dollars a ton. Some days ago I concluded to use raisins as horse feed instead of grain. As an experiment I bought an old horse and fed the animal twelve pounds of raisins a day. The nag was worn out and poor, but in a short time he began to fatten and grow sleek. The food seemed very nourishing and the horse became plump and full of life. I sold the animal back to the original owner for thirty dollars-three times what I paid for him. Twelve pounds of raisins a day is equal to twenty pounds of barley. At the present price of grain this would make a food value of raisins of about sixty dollars a ton, leaving a profit of forty-two dollars a ton over the actual sell- ing price of eighteen dollars. Raisins also make good cattle and hog food, but I have not experimented much in that line. Horses seem to relish the raisins and keep in good condition while being worked. Several of my neighbors will follow my example and use raisins for stock feed. This is a good way to get rid of the surplus in the hands of the farmers.''
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
The future of the industry hung trembling in the balance. Various plans were considered to organize the growers for mutual protection and benefit. The pioneer combination after a long campaign of agitation was The Cali- fornia Raisin Growers' Association, the conception of the late M. Theo. Kearney, and founded in 1898.
From 1889 until 1893 growers were enabled to average five cents a pound, but with the financial panic of the year 1893 prices fell again, and in 1897 raisins were quoted as low as three-quarters of a cent per pound. They were even sold on commission at prices that often did not cover the shipping charges, and fortunate the shipper that did not find himself still in debt to the broker. Conditions were so unprofitable that many despaired, and It was estimated that in this county 20,000 acres of vines were uprooted. The lesson of the absolute necessity for organization had to be driven home by costly and bitter experience. For about six years the association was more or less of a success, though at no time had it ever a controlling percentage of the crop signed up, while as one result of its operations it "held up the um- brella" of benefit and protection for those who while not averse to accept benefits contributed nothing to bring them about but withheld their crops from the pool.
Crucial difficulties arose late in the 1903 season owing to a fall in prices. Personal animosities were stirred up, directed for a time specially against Mr. Kearney as the president of the combine. Besides the directorate fell into the hands of men, some of whom did not measure in capacity up to the task before them. The association being unable to sell, many growers received no returns and in August, 1904, with only thirty percent. of the estimated acreage signed up contracts were surrendered to growers and shortly after the association passed into the hands of W. R. Williams as receiver and long litigation followed in liquidation. The largest crop was the one of 1903, the association packing 97,001.854 pounds.
Such low prices resulted in 1904 that another effort at organization was made with M. F. Tarpey as the leader, elected as president, and the com- pany incorporated on May 6, 1905. Returns made to signed up growers averaged three cents a pound amounting to $1,205,546. Some 38,000 acres were signed up. Prejudice arose against cooperation. Growers did not sup- port the company for various reasons and it dissolved on May 1, 1906. Years elapsed and a new and by far the strongest organization was established early in 1912 under the name of the California Associated Raisin Company with one million dollars capitalization, adopting the basic plan worked out by W. R. Nutting but elaborated upon in the light of experience.
This association is a cooperative institution "that stands for construc- tion and not for manipulation," whose aim is to find as a sales agent a market for the grower by aiding the wholesaler to sell more raisins to the retailer and help the retailer to move raisins from his shelves to the ultimate con- sumer. The developed plan of cooperative effort is not alone for a better marketing but to standardize the product, secure appreciation of distributor and consumer, and thus plan for the future, when increased tonnage will mean low prices unless demand has kept a step in advance of production at all times.
In the closing statement to stockholders on the 1915 crop, Vice Presi- dent and Manager James Madison congratulated them on having disposed at fairly remunerative prices of the largest crop of raisins that this state has ever produced. In fact, the prices obtained by the company are as high, in his judgment, as they ever should be, if it is the desire to maintain the proper relation between consumption and production, and this the directors have always borne in mind as a vital factor in the continued success, so that
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
raisin vineyards may be considered a safe and profitable investment. The financial statement as indicative of the volume of business done shows :
Gross receipts $11,853,930.89 3,456,452.46
Packing and shipping
Net sales
8,396,578.43
Cost of raisins
$7,084,463.60
Receiving, etc.
224,226.50
7,313,690.10
Amount due on final settlement.
$ 1,082,888.33
TONS HANDLED
Ton Rate
on Final.
Tons.
Muscats
7.72
77,951
Thompson's
29.67
10.589
Sultanas
28.81
5,499
Malagas
10.00
623
Feherzagos
10.00
234
94,896
The 1916 crop was approximately 126,000 tons or 2,000 greater than that of 1915, according to the state viticultural commission. Thompson's seedless gained 100 per cent. with a yield of 32,000 tons. The Muscat yield was 83,000 tons against 93.000 in 1915. Heavy rains caused the shortage. Accord- ing to Association President Wylie M. Giffen, the loss is the more notice- able, because it came on the eve of what promised to be one of the best years in the history of the industry. With the possible exception of the 1915 crop, that of 1916 was the largest in history, and with the high prices prevailing it looked like a banner year for the raisin growers, and every one dreamed dreams of the things that would be done as soon as the crop was off.
The close of the year 1917, fourth of the Associated, marked it as the most successful cooperative producers' organization yet undertaken in the state. Yet it faced a crisis. Contracts with growers expired with limitation. New ones had to be entered into to continue the association. A three months' campaign "drive" followed, the greatest and most sensational and spectacular in the history of the industry and that history has been a spectacular one. The county was kept at the fever heat of excitement until success was an- nounced through the press on the morning of February 1, 1918. The associa- tion was saved and given a life lease for six years.
That campaign was reminiscent of the earlier days of raisin cooperative association enterprises when the "drive" was an annual affair. Tuesday, January 29, was declared a business holiday for a last general effort to save the industry from destruction, and over 400 committeemen, including merchants, bankers, professional and non professional men, assumed charge of one great auto caravan "drive" to penetrate every nook and a corner of a territory of 250 square miles surrounding the city. Stores and offices were closed and the day was given over to a canvass for contracts for the California Associated Raisin Company.
Newspapers had been full for days and days with columns upon columns of appeals and reasons for coming to the association's rescue, nightly meet- ings had been held in the school districts, individuals were not lacking to induce signatures by means that were subject to criticism and acts of sabot- age were committed to coerce others into signing. The victory was hailed as remarkable in the annals of cooperative farm marketing. One week before defeat stared the growers in the face after all the efforts made, loyal farmers.
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
merchants, financiers, professional and laboring men had by the thousands labored wherever raisins are grown, had gone to the unsigned and reminded them that the unprecedented prosperity is a result of cooperative marketing and to stay out and kill the association meant the ruin of the grower and of the business man.
The thousands that feared their contracts in escrow would be burned with a failure to sign up were relieved. The joy apparent in Fresno when the result was made known was shared wherever in the state raisins are grown in any quantity. Thousands who had worked voluntarily for success were repaid. President W. M. Giffen of the association notified the Fresno Clear- ing House Association that the crop contracts delivered with the notice with those previously delivered numbered 6,980, representing 131,530 acres in raisin vineyard. This acreage was well over the 125.000 minimum required by the agreement with the signers to make them effective and request was made that the escrow contracts be delivered as soon as practical.
Editorially one of the newspapers described the achievement in the fol- lowing language :
"The result of the successful conclusion of the Associated Raisin Company campaign represents the biggest achievement of this state, possibly of the nation, and to look at it only from the material standpoint it underwrites the prosperity of the community for the next six years. It means sane market- ing conditions, good prices and extended markets to take care of the yearly increasing acreage. When there is "money in raisins" it naturally means more planting, but the continuance of the national advertising will make the demand keep up with the supply."
In this felicitation over the economic advantages, the social and spiritual were not overlooked. In fact the latter were regarded as the greater victory in that 7,000 men and women of the raisin belt are one in an economic brotherhood. Only in the perspective of twenty years or more was the feat of the three months viewed in its real magnitude and significance in the culmina- tion of a long apprentice period. The growers had learned a lesson and reduced to its fundamental basis it was a moral, perhaps a religious rather than an economic lesson, that the growers trust one another and faith has made them one.
Six days before the end there was still lacking a 15,000 acreage. The minimum considered necessary to be signed up if the company was to con- tinne as a growers' concern was 125,000. The crop is between 150,000 and 160,000 tons bitt within a few years will be increased to between 200,000 and 225,000. For the next six years the average crop will in all probability be 200,000 tons. There was needed eighty or eighty-five per cent. of it signed 11p. A difficulty of the campaign was that twenty per cent. of the growers could not be approached by solicitors.
The acreage obtained was 131,350 and better than eighty-five per cent. of all the raisins grown in the state, the strongest control ever had. Under the new contract the starting point was the lowest, as nothing was lost then by transfer of places and every contract added to the percentage, whereas under the old the starting point was the highest and continually there was lost more through the place transfers than gained through the solicitors. While every effort was centered on the 125,000 acreage objective, this was not all that was accomplished. There are in the state scattered from Marysville to San Diego 10,000 growers and of this number 8,500 approximately signed the contract and there is not one that has a more favorable contract than another. Contracts were lost because of "arbitrary methods" pursued but the fact remains that no favor was shown in the taking of them. Not an option was stricken out, not a contract was taken that did not run with the land and not a promise was made to an individual that is contrary to the general policy applying to all.
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
A fine public spirit was manifested in the campaign and without excep- tion every community, newspaper, civic organization, ladies' club, growers' committee and thousands of individual workers from every calling of life did their part. As it was said: "Even the packers in their frantic attempts to prevent success furnished the spice which is invaluable in a campaign of this kind." The percentage summary according to grapes is as follows:
Muscats
88%
Thompson's
88
Sultanas 87
Malagas
90
85
Feherzagos
Average of All
88%
The Yuba and Marysville districts have about eighty-five per cent., a remarkable showing for an outside district. The experience has been in all campaigns that it is more difficult to secure the required percentage in the districts farther away from the center. Exceedingly gratifying was the showing of the township final percentages with not one in the thickly settled vineyard district not running better than eighty per cent. The township in which Selma and Kingsburg are located tied with that in which Rolinda is located and the township east of Reedley, all having ninety-eight percentage; Biola is second with ninety-seven: Dinuba third with ninety-six; Fowler fourth with ninety-five and every other township in the thickly settled district better than ninety per cent. with the exception of the six tributary to Fresno and they averaging eighty-six. There are townships in outlying districts that have only forty or fifty per cent. but in many of these there are only two or three vineyards and in all the acreage is so small that it only affects the whole slightly.
The new contract guarantees to stockholders eight per cent. earning on money actually invested for the next six years and by a simple clause the stock is automatically increased from $1,040,000 to $2,500,000 or $3,000,000 in the next three or four years in such a way that some stock goes into the hands of every grower without his feeling the burden. This increased stock will provide adequate packing facilities to handle the crop without the con- gestion and delay that has prevailed and at the same time make the growers who own it the eight per cent. earning.
The new directors of the association for one year are: Wylie M. Giffen, Hector Burness, A. G. Wishon, H. H. Welsh, Hans Graff, F. H. Wilson and M. V. Buckner of Hanford. They chose as officers: President, W. M. Giffen ; Vice Presidents, Hector Burness and F. H. Wilson; Assistant to the President, F. A. Seymour ; Secretary, C. A. Murdoch ; Assistant, F. M. Cleary ; Cashier, A. L. Babcock. Appropriation has been made of $375,000 to be spent in sales and advertising during the fiscal year commencing June 1, 1918. This is $19,000 more than appropriated last year but will give more publicity. A feature of the advertising will be the almost exclusive use of page adver- tising in colors in leading magazines. There will be an increase in trade press advertising with particular reference to the candy, confectionery and baking trades.
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
CHAPTER XXXV
CALIFORNIA AN AGRICULTURAL WONDER, AND FRESNO A PROMINENT FACTOR. MANY RESOURCES OF BOTH ARE YET UNDEVELOPED. GREAT PROPORTIONS ATTAINED BY THE WINE INDUSTRY. FRESNO LEADS IN SWEET WINE AND BRANDY. ORCHARDS A DEVELOP- MENT FEATURE OF THE COUNTY. CONDITIONS IDEAL FOR SUN CURING OF THEIR PRODUCTS. CITRUS GROWING BELT OF THE VALLEY. LOCAL NURSERY STOCK OF A YEAR SUFFICIENT TO SUPPLY THE ENTIRE STATE. THE FARMER HAS YET TO LEARN THE IMPORTANT LESSON OF THE VALUE OF THE BY-PRODUCT OF THE FARM.
California may well claim to be an agricultural wonder. Its farming presents more interesting features and affords greater opportunities than does any other state what with its wide range of products, soil, climatic and weather peculiarities. That "everything will grow in California" has been accepted as a fact. There is basis for it at least in that no farming ever tried has proven a failure from the productive point. Yet no part of the state has been developed to capacity, either as to output or selection of product that will prove of greatest and lasting profit. Its limit of production equals almost the range of semi-tropical and temperate lands. Fresno has been one agent to establish that reputation for the state, yet it is itself far short of having developed its cultivable area in the more valuable crops. Foremost in the line of fruit production, Fresno is the home of the grape, whether for the raisin, for wine, or for table use.
The great grain fields such as made Fresno notable in former days have been converted into small acreages for intensive farming, yet California is still a cereal grower. The opening of eastern and foreign markets for green deciduous fruits and canned and sun-cured products has left as a primary problem only the selection of the fruit varieties that are most successfully grown and best marketed. The caprification of the fig in Fresno may some day crowd out Smyrna as the world's supply. This is no irridescent dream, for Fresno snatched the raisin scepter from Spain as Santa Clara practically drove the French prune from the American market and is crowding the for- eign mart, while the northern and central portions of the state furnish eighty- five per cent. and more of the canned and dried fruits of the American and export trade.
The opportunities are here for important development. A quarter of a century has demonstrated enough to justify expectation far beyond the present stage of development. The increased alfalfa area has animated live stock interests and stimulated dairying. Breeding of horses and mules should be a greater development factor. No reason why live stock raising should not continue a large and profitable industry. Nor the sheep business for mutton and wool. In 1876 it was a leading industry with nearly 7.000.000 head and an annual wool product of 56,500,000 pounds, bringing to the state over ten million dollars. Hog raising as a branch of farming has big possibilities. The present product is insufficient for home needs. Rice. beet sugar to rival the tropical cane, beans, peas, cotton and tobacco are inviting fields. The area in fruit is ever expanding and the outlook is hopeful for figs, dates and the olive.
Failure of a fig crop in Fresno or in California has never been known. Fig buyers are so certain of an annual crop that it has become the custom in the county to make one to five year contracts with growers for the crops
199
HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
on their avenne border trees and for entire orchards and purchaser paying in advance for the expected crops.
There were fourteen beet sugar factories in operation in the state in 1917 using 1,318,400 short tons of beets from which 200,100 tons of sugar were made. This was the output from 154,700 acres planted for the season. The beets averaged fifteen and eighteen one-hundredths per cent. of sugar, the highest reported from any sugar-beet growing state. The average price to the farmer was seven dollars and fifty-two cents per ton.
In citrus fruit, California is crowding ahead. The Central California citrus belt is being enlarged. The raisin has beaten every record with its acreage. California is a wine producer of over 30.000,000 gallons annually, competing with the old world countries. Almost all the sweet wine and brandy made in America is Californian, with Fresno leading, even though the output has greatly decreased owing to the heavy tax on brandy for fortifying. Owing to this tax, the production fell off enormously during the 1915 season, sweet wine about one-fifth. the lowest since 1893, and brandy one-third. the smallest since 1899-3.882.933 and 2,613,286 gallons respectively.
The farmer of California has yet to learn the lesson of the value of the farm by-product as in butter, eggs, poultry, honey and the like. The day of immense cultivation with the small things overlooked has passed: replaced by that of intense cultivation with the small things closely looked after. Private enterprise largely reclaimed a portion of California's irrigable lands. Great natural resources in land and water remain undeveloped and await concerted action in a task of magnitude. With irrigated agriculture as the dominant industry of the state, Samuel Fortier, an expert writer on the sub- ject, declares that "the same intelligence, energy and perseverance which wrested 2.500.000 acres from sands and low producing grain fields can reclaim other millions of acres."
As a report of the California Development Board observed : "With abun- dant oil for fuel for manufacturing power and motive power on the one side and with over 9,000.000 horse power in water power yet to develop, and a widening of markets both at home and in the Orient. California can face her industrial future with confidence." Well it is also to remember that be- cause of the high economic value of the climate. it has been said that "there is no time in California when all nature is at rest or plant life is sleeping. In the field, orchard. garden, factory and in the mines, on the stock farm and in the dairy every day is one of productive labor."
WINE INDUSTRY ENORMOUS
California's wine industry has attained great proportions in extensive vineyards of 170,000 acres as well as in enormous capital investments. Sweet wine production more than doubled in the ten years before 1912, the output as well as that of brandy much greater than all the states combined, 9,502,391 gallons port and 7,904,955 sherry, a total of 22.491.772 for seven varieties of sweet wines against 605.004 for the four varieties of all the other states. A little more than a century ago, Madeira was the favorite wine and Jamaica rum, the spirit. Whisky and brandy were unknown. Brandy was not statistic- ally named apart from spirits until 1842. California's 1915 sweet wine product, in which brandy enters largely in the fortification, was 16.868,374 gallons against 300,324 for five other states, and of fruit brandy 7,906,380 against 615,571 as against all other states.
The introduction of European vines into California dates back to 1771 by the Catholic missions from Spain via Mexico. The first vineyard was the one at Mission San Gabriel near Los Angeles, extended thereafter from mis- sion to mission from San Diego to Sonoma in five to thirty acre vineyards. One variety of grape was grown, the Mission, which is still grown. With the confiscation of the missions in 1845, the vineyards fell into neglect. In 1850 two southern counties produced 50.055 gallons, ten years later the state
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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY
production was 246,518. In 1856 there were 1,540,134 vines in the state, two years later 3,954,548. At this later period the wine industry was promoted and greatly encouraged. In 1861 A. Haraszthy as a member of the newly created state commission on viticulture visited the European wine districts and bought 100,000 vines of 1,400 varieties which were propagated in Sonoma. Cuttings were distributed among growers and from that time wine manufacture has had a continuous growth interrupted only by depreciation during particular years. In 1870 farms produced over 1,814,000 gallons and Los Angeles, Sonoma and Santa Clara were leading producers. Besides, wineries capitalized at $658,420 produced wine of the value of $602,553.
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