212 Cooperation in Agriculture 



them. The farmer as an individual is helpless in meeting 

 these conditions alone. Unregulated competition has 

 utterly failed to correct the abuses of the food-distrib- 

 uting system. Reasonable regulation of the semi-public 

 agencies of distribution and sale by local authorities and 

 by the state and federal governments, and organization 

 among the farmers to improve the methods of handling, 

 packing, distributing, and selling their products will help 

 solve these difficulties and will benefit every one who 

 is honestly engaged in the distribution and sale of the 

 nation's food supplies. In order to bring about a better 

 condition in the handling of food supplies and to reduce 

 the cost of living, it is recommended by the Committee on 

 Markets, Prices, and Costs of the New York State Food 

 Investigating Commission 1 



"That the Charters of the various cities of the State 

 be amended so as to provide for Departments of Markets 

 charged with the economic and sanitary supervision of 

 food supplies used in the municipalities. 



"That the primary or wholesale prices should be fixed 

 by systematic auction sales in lots suitable for purchase 

 by retailers, conducted under the auspices of the City or 

 of a public organization, not for profit, in which all parties 

 interested should have a voice, constituting, on primary 

 prices, a producers' and consumers' market." 



THE HANDLING OF THE FRUIT CROP BY COOPERATIVE 

 ASSOCIATIONS 



The fruit-growers of the United States need to organize 

 cooperatively to bring about a better handling, grading, 



1 Report, August 1, 1912. 



