CO-OPERATION IN SELLING FRUIT. 29 1 



city trade all it will handle ; the surplus they send to out of town 

 customers where there is no fruit raised or an insufficient supply 

 and get the old prices, those good old prices some of us used to get 

 when we first started to grow fruit. At first we used to get good 

 returns from these commission houses, but have not the prices 

 dropped and dropped until there is no more any profit in raising 

 small fruits? The commission man sends us a nice quotation on 

 the price for fruit, but how often has he paid the price quoted? I 

 have been connected with shipping fruit to commission men for 

 ten or twelve years, but never have I known one to make returns for 

 the price they said the fruit was selling for — not once in the ten 

 or twelve years. Pretty hard statement to make, but it is a fact 

 nevertheless. 



What has been the result of dealing as an association under the 

 old plan of consigning to the commission house? I understand 

 from members of other associations, as well as knowing, that our 

 own association is in what you might call a dying condition if not 

 dead already. There are some of the members in all of tlie asso- 

 ciations who will live in a new or reorganized society, one that will 

 be built upon a solid base demanding an honest return for our 

 labors, one in which the producer will be the salesman or else have 

 such control of the salesman that he can sell only at a profitable 

 price. 



By co-operation on the part of us producers of fruits, vegetables 

 and all farm products, even as the bankers, meat packers, transpor- 

 tation companies, manufacturers, mining companies, etc., co-operate, 

 and even all of these co-operating, is it not in our power to reap 

 even greater profits than these corporations, for are they not one 

 and all dependent upon the producers for their raw materials for 

 manufacturing, to transport, etc., etc? Oh, let us, as producers 

 unite ourselves into the strongest, most powerful unit of business 

 this world has yet known or ever can konw ! 



Will it not be cheaper for us to hire men to sell our products, 

 giving them a stipulated salary, demanding a profitable price, than 

 to turn over our produce to these same men to sell at any price and 

 return to us any portion they feel inclined to or, as in some in- 

 stances, nothing at all? 



I know of one dealer who bought berries in 1904 at 75 cents per 

 16 quart case and sold at $1.50 per case. This last season he 

 bought them at 75 cents and 80 cents, and the St. Paul wholesale 

 quotation was $1.86. A nice profit, was it not? Why could not 

 the producers have hired a good business agent, at a good salary, to 

 have done this for them and divide this enormous profit of one man 



