We are also taking up at this time the cultural question endeavoring to eliminate the undesirable varieties and improve those which are commercially profitable.
We have some eighty odd varieties of almonds in this state, many of which are not known commercially. You will thus see that we have quite a problem in cultural lines.
The principal object of the Northern Nut Growers Association, I believe, is the diffusion of knowledge on cultural questions, but a word of co-operative marketing may not be amiss.
Our investigations have shown that for twenty-five years before the war Nonpareil Almonds (our highest priced variety) retailed at about 30c per pound. The grower received from 7c to 10c per pound, the average being close to 8c. This was before the association was formed. After the association was organized, the grower received, through co-operative marketing and by the elimination of speculation and waste in distribution, a range of from 14c to 20c for Nonpareils with an average of approximately 16c while the price to the consumer remained about 35c. During the past two years, the price to the consumer has of course advanced to meet the increase in cost of transportation, cost of doing business and of production. As a matter of fact, the increase in price to the consumer has not kept pace with the big increase in the cost of production. The point I wish to make, however, is that co-operative marketing has on the average, by the elimination of speculation and, as before said, by minimizing waste in distribution, secured for the almond grower a living price.
We do not believe that the marketing problems of the farmer will ever be satisfactorily solved until he takes them up through co-operative methods and solves them himself.
My work for the past eleven years has been in connection with the sale of almonds and I am happy to say that while our country is going through a period of trying re-adjustment at the present time, the association has meant to the almond growers of California a wonderful insurance against loss. The consumer, too, has been benefited as this association has been able to lay down almonds in the markets of the United States at a lower distribution cost than would otherwise have been possible.