248 Cooperation in Agriculture 



son, 1 showing that when the consumer buys oranges by the 

 dozen, the producer receives only twenty per cent of the 

 retail price, whereas he receives 59.3 per cent when 

 the purchase is by the box. It has been shown by 

 the Committee on Markets, Prices, and Costs of the New 

 York State Food-investigating Commission in 1912, that 

 the cash margin between the wholesaler's cost and the 

 retailer's selling price of a dozen lemons is 122.2 per cent 

 over the wholesale cost ; bananas, 135.2 per cent ; Baldwin 

 apples, 116.2 per cent; and Florida oranges, 40 per cent. 

 Before the California citrus growers systematized these 

 operations, the cost of handling and packing the crop was 

 nearly double the present cost. The crop then was a specu- 

 lative product and was controlled by speculative dealers 

 rather than by the producers. There was a wider varia- 

 tion in the wholesale price of both oranges and lemons. 

 Now the retail price of oranges is usually lower than the 

 retail price of apples, and the orange has been transferred 

 from a luxury to a staple article of diet. 



THE COOPERATIVE DISTRIBUTION AND SALE OF OTHER 

 FARM PRODUCTS 



The cooperative method of conducting the business of 

 the farmer may be applied to other branches of agricul- 

 ture not already discussed in the foregoing pages. The 

 vegetable growers of the East and of the Southwestern 

 states have cooperative organizations ; the walnut grow- 

 ers, the lima-bean growers, the celery and cauliflower 

 growers, the raisin and dried-fruit interests of California, 

 are organized to a greater or less extent, the potato grow- 



1 Report of Secretary of Agriculture, 1910, p. 22. 



