Handling, Distributing, and Sale of Fruit 239 



tion among buyers, the section in which the fruit is to be 

 shipped and the volume of business to be handled. With 

 these fruits the growers can afford to take the risks of 

 distribution and of final sale. They are less dependent 

 on the local buyers, and they can sell at the point of 

 production, to distant buyers on an F.O.B. cash basis, 

 or subject to inspection on arrival, through auction com- 

 panies or through their own agents. 



THE CITRUS FRUITS OF CALIFORNIA 



The citrus fruits of California can be handled differently 

 from any other American fruit. They are staple prod- 

 ucts, and the distribution and marketing can be reduced 

 to a systematic basis. The growers have been obliged to 

 develop the most comprehensive, scientific system of 

 crop distribution that is applied to a farm product any- 

 where in the world in order to safeguard their property 

 interests by insuring a proper distribution and marketing 

 of their crop. They cannot risk their property by de- 

 pending on local and distant jobbers and fruit buyers 

 to distribute their fruit, pay them a fair price for their 

 crops, and at the same time create a demand that will 

 take care of the constantly increasing product. They 

 have been obliged to eliminate speculation from the dis- 

 tribution of their crop and to distribute it evenly on a 

 merchandizing basis. As an outcome of an experience of 

 twenty years, sixty-five per cent of the growers, through 

 one organization, the California Fruit-growers' Exchange, 

 have placed their own agents in the leading cities of 

 the United States and Canada, and through these agents 

 the growers distribute the vast crop to the wholesale 



