i8 



bers. Fruit and produce from non-members are also hand- 

 led, the union acting as agent and getting 3% commission on 

 gross sales, this likewise going into the earnings of the 

 union. This business has been going on for six years quite 

 successfully. The members are obliged to turn over all 

 of their fruit to the union. A fine of 25 cents is imposed for 

 any package of fruit disposed of outside the union. 



A tangible effort toward the co-operative marketing of 

 Massachusetts fruit is the organization this winter of the 

 Apple Growers' association of Hampshire and Franklin 

 counties. Of course no definite work can be undertaken un- 

 til next season, when some of the large fruit growers in the 

 western part of the state hope to benefit through certain 

 economies, such as the purchasing of barrels in large quan- 

 tities, arranging for freight cars, when and where needed 

 for prompt service, and possibly some concessions in freight 

 and express rates to Boston or New York markets. This 

 young organization, in line with the experience of shippers 

 generally, is keenly alive to the necessity of a good salesman 

 in the distributing markets. 



I have presented to your attention a number of specific 

 instances of encouraging and successful co-operative enter- 

 prise. It will be well to note in the briefest manner possible 

 some of the deductions, the crystallized opinions and the 

 records of experience of fruit growers elsewhere. 



Personal observation and much correspondence brings 

 out the fact that both west and east there is a very strong 

 drift among successful orchardists to sell their apples on 

 the trees or barreled, as the case may be, at home, rather 

 than consigning. This is not necessarily a reflection on 

 commission merchants as a whole, but reveals the opinion 

 of many people who have had wide experience in marketing 

 apples. A prominently and eminently successful grower in 

 central Illinois, bearing on this subject says: "I have tried 

 to find out how to get the best market results; I have con- 

 signed to various commission houses, and this method cost 

 me thousands of dollars, owing to unsatisfactory returns. 

 I have sold apples to be paid for on arrival, and this is bad, 

 as the commission house is liable to turn down the car of 

 fruit on arrival, providing the market is a little off, and 

 wire that the car has arrived out of condition and subject 

 to my order. The rejected car is then turned over to some 

 other house which of course has a good excuse for slaugh- 

 tering this rejected fruit, and then I may be called up in> 



