268 THE FARMER AS A COOPERATOR. 



going; in the first place, there is a better assurance against 

 loss. There is no credit business without risk, and cooperative 

 business is not entirely free from risk, but produce is usually sold 

 in car-load lots to jobbers, for cash on inspection and delivery. 

 With only ordinary management on the part of a cooperative 

 society, the proceeds are nearly certain to at once reach the 

 hands of the producer. If sold through a commission house 

 the returns ought to be equally prompt and certain, but it is 

 quite possible, and it is alleged to be not unfrequent in the 

 trade, for a commission house to retain, for some time, the 

 proceeds of a sale, and employ them to make advances on 

 other goods, or even for spsculative purposes. Commission 

 houses frequently fail, and, although owing to the custom of 

 making large advances, they are seldom much indebted to 

 farmers, yet it is a fact tliat the risk of loss to producers is 

 greater in dealing through a commission house than in selling 

 through a cooperative selling agency which ought never to 

 buy for its own account and seldom does.* 



It is also a fact that a strong and well-managed cooperative 

 marketing society will nearly always be preferred by buyers, 

 at equal prices, to almost any private packing-house, by 

 reason of the greater assurance of honest packing. This is 

 simply because it is not to the private interest of any coopera- 

 tive official to pack dishonestly. Of course it is to the inter- 

 est of all men to be honest, but there are many business men 

 who do not understand this, and while the best business firms 

 unquestionably endeavor to protect their "brands" by honest 

 packing, yet they are not all of this class, and no one familiar 

 with any trade will deny that frauds in packing are constantly 

 attempted, and frequently successful. The reputation for 

 honesty which is generally enjoyed by coo})erative companies 

 as compared with the average private company is of decided 

 economic value. 



Another economic advantage is that of associated credit. 



*The strongest cooperative selling agency that I know of does upon occa- 

 sion, buy produce not controlled by it, in order to prevent its owner.^ from 

 underselling. It has always profited by so doing thus far. 



