204 MODERN FRUIT MARKETING 



ble for that. On the other hand, the smaller exchanges 

 are not able to hire a salesman throughout the whole 

 year, so various methods have been devised to elim- 

 inate this large expense. It was also found that these 

 agents were more or less competing against other ex- 

 changes handling the same kind of fruit, and that this 

 would eventually become one of the difficulties of coop- 

 eration. So immediately a move was started to have 

 certain standard selling agencies represent a number of 

 different exchanges. This resulted finally in the estab- 

 lishing of several distributing associations, of which 

 more will be said later. 



Track sales and f. o. b. sales are very closely related. 

 Track sales are usually considered as sold on the track 

 in which the fruit is produced, or in other words, the 

 nearest shipping point. An f. o. b. sale means free on 

 board cars at any point designated, hence a track sale 

 and an f. o. b. sale may mean the same condition. It 

 is undoubtedly a desirable way of selling fruit on the 

 track at the point in which it is produced, but this can 

 only be handled under certain peculiar conditions. In 

 the first place, general markets must be such that buyers 

 are willing to go into the field and bid on fruit which 

 may be sold at the tra^k. This further means that only 

 in large producing sections where a good many cars are 

 shipped daily can buyers afford to place agents at these 

 producing points. 



Some fruit-growing sections, especially favored by 

 good shipping facilities or a little better quality of 

 fruit, often attract buyers where other sections would 

 have to send out their salesmen and hustle for the trade. 

 Track sales, as a rule, give a little better returns than 



