SELLING AGENCIES 185 



glected by a great many exchanges and one which is 

 vital to the best interests of the organization. In the 

 spring, after the old crop is out of the way and the man- 

 agement is then turning its attention to the oncoming 

 crop he begins to need information regarding conditions 

 from the producing end. The manager makes up a list 

 of questions, puts them in bulletin form, leaving a space 

 to write in the answer and sends a copy to each member. 



Among the questions that he would ask would be the 

 following: (1) Name and address. (2) Number of 

 acres in fruit. (3) Kinds of fruit. (4) Estimate of 

 the crop. This is properly done in the early season. 

 Each member of the exchange fills in the blank and re- 

 turns it to the main office in June or early July. The 

 manager gets the data together and begins to file it in 

 shape to be available later when the time for selling 

 comes. Then a little later in August, or early Sep- 

 tember, when it would be possible to predict rather 

 accurately the prospects of the oncoming crop, another 

 set of questions would be sent out. This time special 

 attention would be given to the name or the varieties 

 of the fruit grown, the number of trees in bearing of 

 each of these varieties and an estimate of the crop, not 

 only as to the quantity but as to the probable grades 

 or quality. 



In the first year of the life of the exchange this is 

 rather difficult to get, but where the information has 

 been kept from year to year through this medium it 

 becomes quite easy to predict a month or two ahead of 

 time what per cent of the fruit will be good and what 

 part will be fancy or Xo. 1. The manager classifies this 

 information so he is able to forecast pretty accurately 



