interested in working out the problem, organized the American
 Fruit Growers, Inc., using their own successful business
as the nucleus.

Joining Crutchfield and Woolfolk, as stockholders in the
anterprise, were many leading fruit growers, a majority of
the former employees of the partnership, a number of the
jobbing trade, as well as financiers and business men with a
recognition of the fact that successful distribution of perishable
 fruits and vegetables is a great business undertaking,
rital to the welfare of modern society.
The new company brought to the task a fresh point of
view, Whereas the one or two large successful cooperative
associations preceding it in the field operated very largely
if not entirely for the producers’ benefit, the American Fruit
Growers, Inc., recognized from the start that the consumer
was as vitally interested in proper distribution as the producer,
 and this company may be said to be the first determined
 move to build a marketing system for fresh fruits
and vegetables to meet the requirements of the consumer as
well as the producer.
[t was recognized that, in order to effect economies in
distribution, perishable products must be standardized in the
growing process. The company’s production operations have
contributed measurably to improving production methods in
the past five years.
The company also sponsored a system of electrically
marking individual fruit, and established the Blue Goose
trade mark. This was the first large scale movement to
identify fruit to the ultimate consumer. To be successful it
required a marketing system that would insure the product
reaching, not only the market, but the ultimate consumer,
with regularity and in perfect condition.
Such a system the American Fruit Growers, Inc., developed
 and is constantly improving. Its tonnage, amounting
in 1921 to 81,288 car loads, in 1922 to 34,087 car loads,
in 1923 to 37,829 car loads, and in 1924 to 36,912 car loads;
represents the products of thousands of growers. The 1924
tonnage included 9,098 cars of apples, 6,428 cars of citrus
fruits, 1.872 cars of potatoes, 2,770 cars of grapes. 2.998 cars