SELLING AGENCIES 189 



The manager with this information before him can 

 forecast, daily, about how much the shipments from 

 other sections of the country will come into competition 

 with the fruit which he is endeavoring to sell. By so 

 doing he can place his shipments in such a way that he 

 will compete the least with any other section of the coun- 

 try. Some of the fruit exchanges are so well organized 

 that, almost any day in the year, a buyer can get fruit 

 from their exchange and never hear of a surplus or 

 oversupply. "With all this information in the hands of 

 one man, it is possible to work out scientific principles 

 of distribution which will cost the producers the least 

 possible amount in getting the greatest possible returns. 



Dispersing Information. A large part of this knowl- 

 edge collected by the exchange becomes of interest to the 

 producer, and the exchanges make an effort to place 

 before the growers such information as may be of value 

 to them. One of the chief methods of doing this is by 

 distributing the annual report published by the man- 

 agement at the central office. In this annual report is 

 usually a summary of the business for the year, number 

 of cars of fruit shipped, number of packages sold, the 

 markets to which they went, the general methods of dis- 

 tribution, etc. Then associated with that is a forecast 

 for the coming season. Recommendations for the local 

 associations to follow out in attempting to improve or 

 better their output. This annual report also includes a 

 statement of the finances of the organization, the ex- 

 penses of the management, the sales department, ship- 

 ping department, etc. 



Another means of keeping the grower informed on 

 conditions of- the market is the daily or weekly bulletin. 



