402 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



union in placing shipments. Then when their car is routed, to what- 

 ever city it may be drawn for, they will have a selling agent there to 

 consign to. As the success of distribution will depend to some con- 

 siderable extent upon the way our berries are handled at the other 

 end of the line it will pay each association to take the paine to inform 

 themselves as to the commission house they engage with and their 

 manner of doing business. 



In the first place it is, in our opinion, a bad business policy for 

 any local association to set up a competition in the sale of their own 

 products by having two selling agents in the same market, for compe- 

 tition never raises prices. Now, to illustrate : The Monett association 

 might have one house as their agent in Denver and Springfield another. 

 This would not bring Monett's berries in competition with Monett ber- 

 ries, but if Monett has two houses in Denver she brings her goods in 

 competition with herself. 



Again, it has been our observation that (here is a great deal of dif- 

 ference, as far as the interest of the grower is concerned, in the way of 

 business of the sale of our berries is conducted. The commission man 

 who tries to hold up the price always conserves the interest of the 

 grower better than the one who educates his trade to continually ex- 

 pect prices to go lower, and persists in operating on the low price 

 theory with the parties with whom they expect to place our goods in 

 order to pass as much through their hands as possible, figuring that it 

 will pay them better to sell two cars of 600 cases each at $1.50 per 

 case, than it would one car at $2 per case, which it would, to the amount 

 of $60 in commissions. But the grower would lose $600 in the deal. 



Another point before we leave this part of the subject: The prac- 

 tice is indulged in quite a good deal, by selling agents of reshipping 

 our goods to other cities, where we also have regular distributing 

 agents. This will have a tendency, more than any other, to destroy the 

 benefits intended to be derived from distribution. This brings our 

 fruit in competition with itself again and the first thing you know some 

 one will be cutting prices. Most certainly will this be the case if the 

 prices in the market to which our goods are reshipped are averaging 

 better than the prices in the city or market from which they are shipped, 

 especially so, if the two markets should be located near each other, out 

 of the desire to prevent better return sales from a competitive mar- 

 ket than the parly who reships our products is able to make them- 

 selves. 



In view of the fact that through the Union we shall be able to so 

 distribute our crop among the large distributing cities as to make it 

 unnecessary to reship from one distributing point to another by ex- 



