Business Management of the Fruit Plantation, 207 



ping and selling the produce is usually advantageous. A 

 manager may be employed to devote his time to the in- 

 terests of the members. He can ascertain the consuming 

 capacity of the towns within profitable shipping distance 

 and the transportation rates to each. This will enable 

 him to send the proper quantities to each town and thus 

 secure better distribution than where each grower ships 

 his own products. By shipping in large quantities, ad- 

 vantage may often be taken of refrigerator cars and car- 

 load rates. Small lots of a given variety, grown by differ- 

 ent members of the association, can be grouped, thus 

 permitting better prices to be secured for all. The larger 

 fruits, as apples, pears and oranges, are sometimes packed 

 by the association, thus insuring uniform packing. The 

 services of middlemen may sometimes be dispensed with 

 by inducing dealers to purchase directly from the associa- 

 tion. 



322. Fruits sell largely by appearance. Too much 

 stress can hardly be placed upon the importance of putting 

 up fruit for sale in an artistic manner (15, 17). 



323. Printed matter in fruit packagfes. The use of 

 printer's ink as a means of promoting sales, so fully real- 

 ized in the mercantile business, seems to be little under- 

 stood by fruit growers, A neat card, placed in the fruit 

 package where it can be readily displayed by the dealer, 

 stating the uses for which that particular variety is spe- 

 cially adapted, with recipes for its proper treatment, would 

 often promote sales, and would tend to educate consumers 

 to discriminate between the qualities of fruits, which would 

 lead to their larger consumption. Other methods of 

 using printed matter will occur to the thoughtful fruit 

 grower. 



