CO-OPERATION IN FOOD-SUPPLY 187 



of fruit is greatly increased by proper grading. At 

 Covent Garden, for instance, the fruit dealer, when he 

 is supplied with a mixed sample, invariably prices it 

 at the price of the worst quality of fruit included, so 

 that the producer loses the difference between that 

 price and the average price of the grades into which 

 the sample ought to have been sorted. 



I have already pointed out the obvious fact that in 

 the transit from the land to the consumer most agri- 

 cultural and horticultural produce has to go through 

 many processes, and that these necessarily differ for 

 each commodity. Thus while milk could be sent 

 direct from the cow to the retail shop, pigs have to 

 be turned into bacon, wheat into flour, and so on. 

 These preliminary processes are, of course, quite dis- 

 tinct from marketing, and many of them can be dealt 

 with co-operatively. For instance, as we have already 

 noted, bacon factories and creameries have been among 

 the most successful of co-operative undertakings. You 

 have to separate your milk for making butter and kill 

 your pig and make bacon of him before your produce 

 is marketable. This, of course, is specialized work, 

 and it is advanced work in the sense that only a com- 

 munity which has seized the principle of co-operation 

 and is prepared to work upon it can possibly under- 

 take it with success. Most untutored agricultural 

 populations want a very great deal of education in co- 

 operative methods before they can successfully carry 

 out schemes of this sort. 



When we come to deal with fruit and vegetables it 

 is obvious that the number of processes between the 

 land and the consumer are much fewer. You can 

 pick fruit and pack it and send it to the private con- 

 sumer direct if you like, and similarly with vegetables 

 of various kinds. But even with fruit, when it is sold 

 wholesale, there are processes which have to be gone 



