MARKET METHODS AND PROBLEMS 549 



distribution of products to many consuming centers rather than con- 

 gestion in a few is one of the most valuable results secured by co- 

 operative action. Cities which are large enough to handle a single 

 commodity in carload lots when it is purchased from the producer 

 receive their goods direct rather than by a diverted shipment or by 

 reshipment. The product reaches the market quicker and hi better 

 condition, and the price to the consumer or to the handler in the small 

 town is reduced by one freight charge and sometimes also by the cost 

 of commission or jobber's profit. One association has been able to 

 sell over 90 per cent of the truck handled by it f.o.b., and this has 

 resulted in a saving of over $150,000 annually ona $2,000,000 business. 

 In other words, the freight charges were paid by the purchaser instead 

 of by the producer, thus saving to the community the cost of trans- 

 porting their products to the centers of consumption or distribution. 



Towns too small to handle "straight" cars of a single commodity, 

 with the possible exception of potatoes, can be served in the same 

 manner as large towns by a system of loading which has been devised 

 by some of the railways receiving products from the trucking dis- 

 tricts. This system consists in loading mixed cars to order, so as to 

 supply the needs, as near as may be, of the town to which the ship- 

 ment is made. This method of handling mixed cars accomplishes a 

 very desirable result, in that it widens the distribution of the product 

 by reaching towns too small to handle solid cars of a single commodity 

 and enables the dealers to purchase direct from the producer, thus 

 insuring all the advantages of direct shipment possible by any other 

 system of carload shipments. By the adoption of a carefully planned 

 cropping system in the several producing centers from which such 

 shipment is to be made a very satisfactory arrangement for both the 

 producer and the consumer can be worked out. 



If the products of various centers are to follow in succession to the 

 same markets and are to be handled on the basis of sales f.o.b. shipping 

 point, the producers must not only maintain standard packs and 

 grades which are uniform, but they must also be in touch with the 

 markets in such a way as to insure prompt and satisfactory disposal 

 of their products. At present this is accomplished by wide-awake, 

 active dealers who know the markets and the producers as well, and 

 by purchasing in one locality in January, in another in February, and 

 so on from season to season, thus keep their customers supplied from 

 the beginning to the end of the period. Neither independent pro- 

 ducers nor associations of growers with fixed fields of production can 



