i8o 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



July, 1914 



The Cooperative Marketing of Fruit* 



A. E. Adams, of the United Fruit Companies, Ltd., Berwick, N. S. 



T(IK rooperators own nnd operate their 

 own factories. Considering- the pre- 

 sent state of cooperative production 

 as carried on by the Cooperative 

 Wholesale Society, certrin facts must b? 

 noticed. Cooperators have undertaken pro- 

 duction solely to supply their own needs. 

 The goods made ''vy the Cooperative Whole- 

 sale Society are made not to be sold for 

 profit, but to be consumed by the pr6prie- 

 tors of the factories where they) are pro- 

 duced. Though one hears of Cooperative 

 Wholesale Society goods being bought and 

 sold, riid of profits made on them, it is of 

 the utmost importance in studying certain 

 aspects of the Cooperative Wholesale So- 

 ciety production to remember that neither 

 in the Cooperative Wholesale Sociiety nor in 

 the distributing store are the goods "sold" 

 to the members at a "profit" as we under- 

 stand these terms in the world of competi- 

 'ive trade. Wb?n the Cooperative Wholi- 

 sale Society sends boots made at Leices- 

 ter to a society, and the latter hands them 

 to a member, there is no "sale" or "bar- 

 ter" in the economic sensie, but merely a 

 process of distribution. The man who gets 

 the boots, being the part owner of the Co- 

 operative Wholesale Society factory, the 

 Cooperative Wholesale Society warehouse, 

 and his local store, was really the principal 

 in the transactions where the leather was 

 bought and the labor hired for putting- it 

 together. He deposited a sum represented 

 by his share of capital with certain agents 

 or employees of his who undertook to 

 supply him with a pair of boo^^vhen he 

 wanted them. When he t^uH^e pair of 

 boots from his local sto^^^Preduces the 

 amount of his deposit wij^^Bose agents by 

 the value of his boots, ^nd his payment 

 when he obtains them is really making up 

 that deposit to what it was before with a 

 small ;sum added, which at the quarter end 

 he may either withdraw or allow to remain 

 in their hands. That he should choose to 

 call his payment at the time of taking the 

 boots the "price" of them, his taking them 

 the "buying" of them, and the extra sum 

 added to his deposit account with his em- 

 ployees the "profit" on them ishould not be 

 allowed to mislead us as to the real nature 

 of the transaction involved. In ordinary 

 commerce the manufacturer, the shopkeeper 

 and the customer are independent, free to 

 buy or not to buy, to sell or not to sell, and 

 free to fix prices. A little consideration will 

 show how different cooperative trade is in 

 these particulars. 



The Cooperative Wholesale Society of 

 Great Britain own and operate some of the 

 largest and best equipped factories ir. 

 Europe. They have five splendid flour and 

 provender mills, the one at TrafTord Whar; 

 being the largest flour mill in the king- 

 dom. There are four large soap factories 

 turning out tremendous quantities of that 

 very useful article. The soap works on 

 the Manchester Ship Canal has a weekly 

 output of three hundred tons of soap and 

 fifty tons of candles. They have in Man- 

 chester a large tobacco factory, with a 

 yearly turnover of $2,600,000. They own 

 several large printing and boxmaking works 

 at various parts of the country. At their 

 Longsight printing works they employ over 

 one thousand hands. 

 They own and operate their own factor- 



ies for the manufacture of fabrics of all 

 kinds, clothing, hardware, ironmongery, 

 brashes, mats, furniture, bedsteads, bed- 

 ding, boots, drugs, preserves, and practi- 

 cally everything the mind can imagine. The 

 boot factories are said to be the largest in 

 the world, their output being two million 

 pairs per annum. 



Their tea warehouse in London has the 

 same distinction, their output being two 

 hundred tons a week. They own three large 

 tea estates in Ceylon. They claim to be 

 absolutely self-supporting. They even go in 

 for farming, and at Roden have a farm of 

 eight hundred acres mostly in fruit. Here 

 they also have a large convalescent home 

 for the families of cooperators. .^t Maden 

 they own another one hundred and fifty 

 acre fruit farm. 



There are employed by the central in 

 their factories alone, no less than one hun- 

 dred and twenty-three persons, the pay-roll 

 amounting to the respectable eum of forty- 

 five million dollars a year. 



CONTHOI, .\ BANK 



To my mind one of the most important 

 departments of the Cooperative Wholesale 

 Society of Great Britain is their bank. They 

 operate their own banks, the turnover of 

 that department last year being no less 

 than six hundred and eighty-two million 

 five hundred and .seventy-five thousand. We 

 in Nova Scotia will never feel that our 

 work is complete till we are powerful 

 enough to obtain a Dominion Charter to 

 likewise do our own banking. 



The Cooperative Wholesale Society also 

 owns its own fleet of steamships, so that 

 they are independent of outside assistance 

 even in the matter of transportation. I 

 hope after this year's experience the time 

 is not Tar distant when the United Fruit 

 Companies of Nova Scotia will be in a 

 position to avail themselves of the powers 

 they possess under their charter and oper- 

 ate their own steamships for the transpor- 

 tation of the fruit of the Valley. 



You will see by the facts and figures I 

 have given that the cooperative movement 



started by that hajidful of humble Rod 

 dale weavers has grown to be a tremend 

 body and one of the most powerful orM 

 zations for good this world possesses. ^ 

 have the cooperators shown what a foofl 

 blunder the retail merchants of Engli 

 made in trying to kill cooperation, 

 the merchants of Canada, both whole 

 and retail, and let the operators and brok 

 of Canada be curoful thit thty make 

 similar blunder. In England they si 

 forced the cooperators into all kinc: 

 manufacturing and wholesale enterprijj 

 much sooner than they would have undl 

 taken them even as the big fertilizer ^ — "• 

 bines in Canada amd the United States 

 ed the United Fruit Companies to fi< 

 rect to the fountain head for its suppli 



What might be done if men were wi 



What glorious deeds, my sufi. 

 brothers 



Would they unite 



In love and right, 



And cease their scorn for one anothci 



Let those who are offering such a s' :_; 

 uoas opposition to cooperation in the 

 napolis Valley of Nova Scotia bear in 

 that nobody who serves any legitin 

 economic need has cause to fear coop 

 tion, for by cooperation we are united 

 assist not combined to injure as are 

 great trusts and monopolies and combines. 



From the European movement all othe 

 cooperative movements have sprung, 

 idea has been applied to many probl 

 and has been equally successful with 

 It has been applied to municipal probl 

 and has resulted in municipal ownership_j 

 water and supply of gas, electricity, tr 

 ways, etc., and, what will possibly inter 

 you mostly, it has been applied to agrifl 

 tural problems also with equal success. 



It is a curious fact, however, that 

 matters agricultural, it requires a serie 

 misfortunes before the farmer will 

 hold of anything new, especially when 

 to him, new theory will possibly do : 

 with much of his individual independ< 

 Hence the examples that can be given c 

 success of cooperation in agricultural mat 

 ters are all the more striking. The 

 known success of cooperation in Deni 

 is a splendid illustration. 



'^ '^'^tract from an address delivered before the 

 teet annual convention of the Nova Scotia Fruit 

 Growers' Association. 



Govarnment Pre-cooUng and Cold Storage Plant at Grimsby, Ont. 



The refrigerator capacity will be 50,000 cubic feet. The space on the ground floor is dlvidel 

 into four rooms, each large enough to handle two carloads of fruit at the same time. 

 These rooma are intended for pre-cooling, port of the basement being available for storage. 

 The equipment is the Gravitv Brine System, in which crushed ice and aalt are used. 



