Pacific Rural Press, Volume 99, Number 10, 6 March 1920 — California Co-operative Canneries [ARTICLE]

California Co-operative Canneries

The success met with by the California Co-operative Canneries in their thirty days' campaign in the Santa Clara Valley, during which additional funds to the amount of $230,000 were subscribed by the fruit growers of the district, and the completion of the organization work at Visalia and Modesto, would seem to insure continued progress of co-operative canning as a movement which bids fair to become a factor in the canning industry of the State and which may serve in future years to stabilize the

canned goods markets, insuring the growers profitable returns for their products. On December 10, The Pacific Rural Press published an outline of the plans governing the workings of the organization. Since that time organization work at Visalia has been com-

pleted, and construction on the new cannery will be started within a few days. This was a victory for the cause of co-operative canning, as the result was achieved in the face of strong opposition.

However, the results of the season of 1919 at the big co-operative plant at San Jose, where the average price returned to cling peach growers ranged as high as $137.00 per ton, and the further reports from the canneries in Southern California, which have now completed their fifth successful season of operation, were so convincing that the growers have enthusiastically supported the cannery project. On January 10, The Pacific Rural Press again called attention to the rapid strides being made by fruit cooperative organizations in California, how a local "co-operative" cannery saved the day for the Santa Clara cherry growers, the. season of 1919. On Wednesday evening, February 25, a mass meeting of growers was held at Modesto, attended by over 100 representative peach growers, and as a result the completion of the organization and the erection of a cannery at that point to be operated during the coming season is practically assured. It is estimated that 2.000 tons of cling peaches will be in the new association in addition to apricots, pears and other canning fruits. The

estimated cost of the cannery will be approximately $150,000. The new unit of the California Cooperative Canneries at Modesto and the organization of an association of the peach growers of that district is to be known as the Stanislaus Growers' Association. As a result of the activities in the district, representatives of the Co-operative Canneries, D. H. Gray, a prominent grower of Hanford district, and H. T. Johnson, a Santa Clara apricot grower, have been in Modesto assisting in the organization. A representative committee of growers have visited the plant of the Co-operative Canneries in San Jose, at which time the interviewed members of the Santa Clara Valley Growers' Association thoroughly investigated the different phases of the business.