192 CO-OPERATIVE FRUIT-GRADING 



The sale of the fruit is undertaken by the society, 

 which disposes of it to salesmen, shopkeepers, or 

 private customers, and settles with the members accord- 

 ing to the average price realized each week on the 

 particular class and variety of fruit to which their 

 supplies have contributed. The members also have 

 the prospect of a bonus at the end of the season, 

 according to the value of the fruit sent in by them. 

 The year's profits, after payment of working expenses, 

 will also be divided among the members on the same 

 basis. 



From a marketing point of view this system would 

 seem to offer all the advantages in respect to grading 

 that the Canadian and other over-seas growers have 

 secured for themselves. It should, besides, enable the 

 society to offer to wholesale purchasers larger and more 

 regular lots of a particular size and variety of fruit than 

 the average individual British grower could control, 

 so that in this way the home-grown fruit ought to 

 secure a much better position on the market. Then, 

 the smaller growers, and especially the cottagers, 

 should derive much benefit from the new arrangements. 

 However small the quantity of any particular variety 

 they may send in, it will be added to the collection in 

 one or other of the various classes for that variety, and 

 will share with the largest contributions of all in getting 

 the best market price. Hitherto the small growers and 

 cottagers (and practically everyone in the Hereford 

 district grows fruit) have been at the mercy of local 

 dealers, who buy up their little lots at the door, pay 

 cash down, and then, getting a profit for themselves, 

 dispose of the fruit to the same people (more or less) as 

 those to whom the Co-operative Grading Society would 

 sell. 



Although absolutely in its infancy, and although 



