WORK DONE OR PROJECTED 165 



a considerable degree of perplexity and dissatisfaction. 

 Pershore is in the centre of a great plum-growing district, 

 about 4,000 acres there being devoted to fruit-production 

 or to market-gardening ; but the arrangements for disposing 

 of the fruit were for a long time unsatisfactory, the growers 

 often failing to obtain what they considered an adequate 

 return on their enterprise. There was but one local market 

 available, and that at Evesham. They could, also, dispose 

 of some produce at Worcester; but this meant a journey 

 of four miles in the former case, and one of seven miles in 

 the latter. They had the further alternative, which some 

 of them adopted, of consigning to Birmingham, Manchester, 

 or Liverpool for sale there on commission ; but here, again, 

 the results were too often unfavourable. The growers also 

 felt that some of their produce, which has a high reputation, 

 suffered from being sold with inferior qualities from other 

 districts. 



With the help of the Agricultural Organisation Society, 

 a co-operative fruit market was organised at Pershore in 

 June, 1909, a society being established for that purpose by a 

 group of growers whose holdings range from a fraction of 

 an acre to 100 acres ; and arrangements were made for 

 selling the fruit in this market as occasion required, 

 (generally about three days a week), without sending it 

 away for sale elsewhere. 



At first it was thought there would be some difficulty in 

 getting buyers from distant towns to attend ; but this has 

 not been the case. As soon as the buyers found they could 

 purchase, under the hammer, produce of a guaranteed 

 standard, the success of the market was practically assured, 

 while the growers realised better prices, and disposed of 

 their produce under more satisfactory conditions generally, 

 than had been the case before. 



So well has the scheme answered that in 1911 the Pershore 

 Co-operative Fruit Market, Ltd., as the society is called, had 

 a turnover of 11,000, paid 5 per cent, to the shareholders, 

 carried 25 per cent, to a reserve fund, presented 5 per cent, 

 to the employees, and gave to the members a bonus equal 



