270 THE FAKMER AS A COOPERATOE. 



1. Elimination of the expense of concentration for sale. 



2. Elimination of expense of any local intermediary 

 between producers and wholesale merchants. 



3. Elimination, to a great extent, of the necessity for 

 forced sales. 



4. Better insurance against loss. 



5. "Good will" of business arising from assurance of 

 honesty. 



6. Associated credit. 



7. Business education acquired. 



The saving under the first two heads, although unques- 

 tioned, is not large. If, instead of downright sales to local 

 buyers, it is i)referred to use them as commission agents 

 selling to wholesale merchants, all the service required for 

 concentration of product and local service in selling in tlie 

 trade taken as an example, can be obtained for about two and 

 one-half per cent of the receipts for goods sold. The actual 

 cost of all the local service required by cooperative methods 

 will of course vary partly by the amount involved, and much 

 more by the personal equation of the management. It should 

 not exceed one per cent, but as a matter of fact wall vary from 

 three-fourths of one per cent to one and one-half per cent. 

 Even this slight saving, if applied to the entire product of a 

 large state, would be well worth distributing." Upon the total 

 fruit and fruit product output of California it would amount 

 to about a quarter of a million dollars annually. 



But the most important gain arises from the elimination 

 of forced sales, and the deliberate marketing of the product in 

 the light of the full information as to its value which gradu- 

 ally becomes disseminated during the marketing season. The 

 amount of the gain to the producer can of course never bo 

 known, or even estimated with much approach to accuracy. 

 It will vary greatly in different industries and. different local- 

 ities, and in different seasons in the same locality and indus- 

 try, but I do not think any one familiar with the conditions 

 of the Californian industry taken as an illustration would 

 estimate the probable gain, if all producers were cooperatively 

 united, at less than ten per cent, or that following the organ- 



