204 Cooperation in Agriculture 



is not supposed to deal in the products, which, as a trustee, 

 he is storing for other people. Many of the warehouse- 

 men of the United States are dealers in the products which 

 they store. They frequently finance the operations of 

 their clients ; they buy poultry, butter, eggs, and fruit on 

 joint account with their clients. They may invest in the 

 corporations of their clients, or their clients may be in- 

 terested in the warehouse corporation, or they may buy 

 and sell these products independently. 



The Retail Trade. The retail dealers sell the produce 

 to the consumers. They may buy it from the producer 

 direct or through brokers, jobbers, commission men, or 

 auction companies. The retail trade is composed of a 

 widely variable class of people, including the stores, the 

 fruit stands, the push-cart men, and other kinds of venders. 



These are the principal avenues by which the fruit 

 trade of the United States is handled. The farmer grows 

 the fruit and takes all the risks of production. He sells 

 it to a local merchant or buyer or through a broker or a 

 commission merchant. The return which he receives de- 

 pends upon his skill as a producer, his honesty and effi- 

 ciency in handling, grading,' and preparing the product 

 for sale and the efficiency and honesty of these different 

 agencies which bridge the stream between him and the 

 consumer. The responsibility of the producer usually 

 ends when his crop is ready for sale, unless he develops his 

 own distributing system. It generally terminates at the 

 farm or at the local railway station, where the crop is sold 

 to the local buyer or to the representative of a distant 

 buyer. If there is free competition among the buyers and 

 the product is handled fairly by the agencies mentioned, 



