period of time. Because of this price and production situation growers of several truck crops have been interested in developing marketing agreement programs during 1935. On the other hand, growers of truck crops as a group cannot expect material improvement in FIGURE 7.-Indexes of acreage and return per acre for 17 truck crops for fresh-market shipment, 1920-35. the price of their crops as a whole if they continue to increase production, unless there are material gains in the buying power of FIGURE 8.-Indexes of production and farm prices for 17 truck crops for fresh-market shipment, 1920-35. FRUIT PRODUCTION ALSO MOVES UPWARD Fruit production as a whole has also shown a steady upward trend. (See fig. 10.) Because of weather conditions and the bearing habits of certain fruits, year-to-year fluctuations in production generally have been much greater for fruit than for truck crops. Prices also have varied widely. As in the case of commercial truck crops, fruit production in recent years has been maintained for the most part at levels equal to or above that for the years previous to the depression. Prices received by fruit growers declined only slightly before 1930. From 1930 to 1932, however, because of lowered consumer incomes and maintained production, they dropped to levels less than half of those prevailing from 1924 to 1929. Prices since 1932 have in FIGURE 9.-Indexes of annual production and farm prices of 13 major fruits, 1920-35 (seasons beginning in the years indicated). creased slightly, so that in 1933, 1934, and 1935 they were 59, 65, and 61 percent, respectively, of the 1924-29 level. Practically all of the recent increase in the total production of fruit, shown in table 9, is accounted for by the rapid gain in the production of citrus fruit in recent years, as is indicated in figure 10. 1920 1922 1924 1926 FIGURE 10.-Indexes of citrus production and farm prices, 1920-35 (seasons beginning in the years indicated). Much of the increased production of citrus fruit, however, occurred at a time when consumer income was greatly reduced, prices to growers consequently declined to approximately 40 percent of the 1924-29 average. Marketing of the large crops of citrus fruit has therefore been a difficult problem for growers, Although their returns have materially improved since 1932, citrus growers face the prospect of further increases in production for at least the next 5 years. The citrus growers in California and Arizona have found their marketing-agreement program effective in preventing unduly depressed prices and have continued its operation since 1933. Under this program it was possible during the 1934-35 season, November to October, to move the largest crop on record for that industry, and at the same time to obtain a total return larger than that for any year since 1930. Other groups of fruit growers such as those producing California deciduous fruits and Colorado peaches found agreement programs beneficial in improving their returns in 1935. 66732-86- -20 |