COLLECTIVE PURCHASE 65 



control the markets. They secure a threefold 

 advantage: (1) They get wholesale prices from 

 the manufacturers instead of retail, these prices 

 being made still lower by the fact that the 

 manufacturer, dealing direct with an association 

 or union, incurs less expense for travellers, etc. ; 

 (2) the quality has to stand the tests of the 

 association's experts ; and (3) lower railway 

 rates are obtained because the consignments are 

 sent to central depots in waggon-load lots instead 

 of small quantities, as in former days. So the 

 small cultivator who buys a couple of sacks of 

 fertilizers or feeding-stuffs through his association 

 gets just the same advantages in price, quality, 

 and railway rates as a large farmer who orders 

 his five or ten tons. These facilities, combined 

 with the skilled advice given free by the associa- 

 tions, have led to a very great increase in the 

 use of fertilizers in France, and many factories 

 have been set up in that country for their pro- 

 duction, while a decrease of from 40 to 50 per 

 cent, has been effected in the prices as compared 

 with what they were before the advent of the 

 agricultural associations. One factory in France 

 which turns out 15,000,000 kilos, the year dis- 

 poses of 12,000,000 kilos, of that quantity to 

 agricultural associations alone. 



Another of the central organizations brought 



