168 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The total number of shipping-point inspections for the fiscal year 

 1923 was 72,666. Colorado led with 24,815 inspections; California, 

 Idaho, and Washington followed with 17,778, 13,338, and 8,917 in- 

 spections, respectively. It should be noted also that of the 72,666 

 inspections only 61 requests for reinspection were made, and of this 

 number 34 inspector's reports were reversed as to grade. 



COOPERATION WITH THE STATES. 



Although detailed arrangements for shipping-point inspections 

 have differed in almost every State from those of almost every other 

 State, the prevailing type of cooperative agreement has provided 

 that the State collect and disburse the fees. The State has also hired 

 the inspectors, while their training and supervision has been left to 

 this department. A small share of the fees collected has gone to the 

 Federal Treasury to offset this cost of supervision. 



In some cases the best arrangement which could be made with 

 the State has been unsatisfactory, but every means has been resorted 

 to in order to place the service within the reach of the largest pos- 

 sible numbers of shippers. 



Some of the economic results of the shipping-point inspection 

 service have been spectacular in the swiftness of their movement and 

 bid fair to leave a lasting impress on the fruit and vegetable in- 

 dustry. By bringing the lessons of proper grading and stand- 

 ardization home to the growers it seems evident that production 

 methods in many districts will be profoundly affected Jealousy 

 and suspicion, which too often attach to the work of the inspector 

 employed by the local cooperative association, does not attach to 

 the work of the Federal inspector. The certificates thus issued have 

 been found a new and satisfactory basis for pooling by organized 

 growers who have never been able to solve this problem in the past. 

 The shipj^er was furnished with a new basis upon which he could 

 offer his product to the purchaser in the distant market and was 

 able to have in hand when the car left his station prima facie 

 evidence that he had made a good deliver3^ The purchaser on the 

 other hand has been given a new method for specifying exactly 

 what the shipment shall be, and if he buys demanding " Government 

 certificate attached to bill of lading " he can be sure that an im- 

 partial agency has passed upon the qualit}' of the goods which will 

 be shipped him. 



NEW METHODS OF SELLING HAVE RESULTED. 



Cajjitalizing this situation, enterprising business men have estab- 

 lished auctions in eastern and western cities, the sole business of 

 which is to sell cars in transit on the strength of the Government 

 inspection certificate. The auctioneer in Pittsburgh, for instance, 

 had in hand a telegraphic summary of the result of the Govern- 

 ment inspection on a car of California products which left the ship- 

 ping point the evening before. The car is offered for sale on this 

 description. The buyers purchase on an f. o. b. shipping-point basis 

 with no other evidence of what the car contains than that earned 

 in this telegram. 



The car is sold, purchase price is transmitted to the shipper bj^ 

 wire, and the transaction is completed within less than 48 hours after 



