TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETING 265 



F.O.B. basis. There is a tendency towards their 

 federation, thus eliminating competition among 

 them. These local associations are usually stock 

 companies which own their own offices and market 

 the grapes of their members commonly on a basis 

 of a daily pool of varieties. Most of them are said 

 to handle other fruits as well and to buy baskets, 

 twine, spray material, posts, hay and feed for their 

 members. Few of the individual associations actually 

 sell the grapes, according to the report by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Mar- 

 kets, but confine their activities to inspection and 

 loading, keeping accurate accounts of the amounts 

 of each variety delivered daily. The usual practice 

 is to give each member 75 or 80 per cent of the 

 estimated market value of each day's hauling and to 

 pro-rate the surplus among the members when the 

 books are balanced at the close of the season. The 

 returns to stockholders depend, it is stated, on the 

 particular arrangement entered into by each asso- 

 ciation.^ Grape-juice factories in this region, in 

 Van Buren County, buy on a standard contract that 

 guarantees to the grower the daily market price on 

 bulk stock with a fixed minimum. At Benton 

 Harbor and St. Joseph an active street market has 

 been developed, in which farmers dispose of their 

 product from the wagon to the highest bidder. If 

 the owner thinks that he can secure a higher price 

 for his grapes by an express or freight shipment to 



»U. S. Dopt. Agr., Bull. 861 : "Marketing Eastern Grapes," 

 Washington, Sept. 13, 1920, 40. 



