240 Cooperation in Agriculture 



trade, they increase consumption through advertising 

 and in other ways, and through their grasp of the 

 daily market conditions throughout the country they 

 distribute and sell the crop under advantages that no 

 other system can approach. Occasionally an effort is 

 made by local brokers, or auction companies, or by other 

 local interests who are interested in making money by 

 handling the growers' product to have the cooperative 

 organizations change the methods which have been de- 

 veloped as a result of years of experience and return to 

 the former system of selling the fruit to speculative 

 buyers in California, either direct or through local auction 

 sales, leaving the distribution of the crop and the exten- 

 sion of trade entirely in the hands of the speculators. 

 These efforts are made by those who aim to exploit the 

 citrus-fruit growers rather than to develop the industry. 

 They aim to disrupt the present marketing system so 

 that they can absorb the growers' profit through divi- 

 dends on the stock of the auc >n company rather than 

 to make a profit for the grower. The principle of 

 depending on a large number of speculative buyers who 

 purchase the fruit in California, to give the producer a 

 fair price for the fruit and at the same time develop a 

 comprehensive system of distribution that will take care 

 of the increasing crop, is unsound from the economic 

 point of view. It was tried in the early days of the in- 

 dustry and failed. The present system insures uniformity 

 in the distribution of their crops through the United 

 States and Canada and uniformity in the shipments 

 throughout the year. It gives stability to the business 

 of the fruit jobber in every market of the United States, 



