A DUTCH GROWERS' COMBINE 199 



collecting firm they may have to take, in effect, what is 

 offered them. 



It is this possibility of the producer securing a greater 

 control of the market that is really at the root of the 

 whole matter. Compared with this essentially practical 

 question, much of what is said concerning the role of 

 the Distributor is of purely academical interest. 



For an example of what I mean in this connection, I 

 would refer to what has been done by the colony of 

 Dutch market-gardeners settled in the Westland district 

 of the province of South Holland. This colony con- 

 sists of about 1,400 growers, who occupy between 

 them some 5,200 acres, of which close on 125 acres 

 are covered with glass. Ten years ago the wholesale 

 dealers of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague, and other 

 towns, used to send their agents to Westland, to buy 

 up the produce from the growers, who, not being well 

 acquainted with the condition of the markets, or want- 

 ing to save themselves further trouble, would often let 

 their stuff go for a much lower price than they should 

 have had. Alternatively, they contracted in advance to 

 sell their entire stock at a very low figure to a dealer 

 who tempted them with a sum down as an instalment, 

 at a time, perhaps, when they were in want of money. 

 So, in one way or the other, the growers were in the 

 hands of the middlemen, while, to make their position 

 worse, many of them were in the habit either of not 

 grading their fruit or vegetables properly, or of putting 

 poor qualities at the bottom of a hamper and good 

 qualities only on the top. 



To remedy this state of things the growers formed 

 themselves into an association, known as ' Westland,' 

 and set up local co-operative auction marts, to which 

 they pledged themselves to send the whole of their pro- 

 duce. They then gave notice to the wholesale dealers 



