56 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



given a price of $4 a barrel. He paid for the barrels and had 

 them shipped to another part of the city, and two days after- 

 ward came back his bill and check for the sale of apples at 

 $1.50 with 10 per cent commission and freight deducted. Well, 

 being a business man, the banker had no controversy but he 

 made out a bill for all the apples that had been shipped to this 

 firm for $4.00 a barrel, stating that he had not been satisfied 

 with the prices that had been returned to him. he had bought 

 his own apples, he knew what they had sold for, and he asked 

 for payment for his entire crop — and the check came back by 

 return mail. Now there is a class of commission men in the 

 business that is a curse to the commission business. There 

 are men who will not do that. There are just as honest men 

 and upright men in the commission business as in any other 

 line, but, as I have already said, there are too many men in the 

 business, and they have to live, and it has become a matter of 

 book-keeping, not a matter of sales, with that class of men. 

 They simply will average sales and you get your average no 

 matter what price your fruit sells for. That is one of the diffi- 

 culties of doing business as an individual today through the 

 commission channels. 



Now if you are organized along the lines of a co-operative 

 association or union that thing would not happen, because the 

 manager of your fruit before it went anywhere would know 

 the character of the men who are doing business. He would 

 look up the standing of the commission men. Your fruit would 

 go into the ver}' best channels, you would get the highest value 

 that the market would pay you and you would have returned 

 back to you again the full value for your fruit according to the 

 values of the market. You would be dealing with the best class 

 of men in the commission business and not with the irresponsi- 

 ble speculator who can set up a stand on the street an}^vhere 

 and if you attempt to find him, can not be found. Many farmers 

 and fruit growers have lost immense sums of money by ship- 

 ping to irresponsible men who bring discredit and disgrace upon 

 the best class of commission men in the business. So you 

 would be safe in these matters if you would work along the co- 

 operative lines. 



Now there is another side to this question, and that is 

 how we can most directly meet the consumer. A very 



