interested in working out the problem, organized the Amer- 
ican 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 perish- 
able 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 pro- 
ducer, and this company may be said to be the first deter- 
mined 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., devel- 
oped 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