326 



THE APPLE 



Efficient distribution. That distribution is most efficient which 

 most thoroughly and evenly covers the field and keeps the cost 

 of service at a minimum. Such a distribution cannot be attained 

 through half a hundred selling associations acting independently 

 of one another. They load the same markets, duplicating each 

 other's expense accounts and receiving no additional return. The 

 unsatisfactory results of present methods were conspicuous in 19 12 

 (see p. 314). The greater consuming ability of large cities tempts 

 shippers to concentrate there ; but in the United States there are 

 only 180 cities of more than 25,000 population, and in the rush 



Fig. 150. Modern marketing in Illinois 

 Consider the saving in horses and time 



to supply these markets many smaller ones, whose aggregate 

 capacity for consumption is large, are altogether overlooked. 



Individual shippers and weak associations cannot afford the 

 expense necessary to keep in touch with all markets and to know 

 the financial standing of the dealers there. They prefer to take 

 their chances at the big centers and with firms whose responsibility 

 they know. Therefore prices are hammered down to an unremu- 

 nerative basis, while at the smaller markets there is an undersupply, 

 or a supply at prices covering so many middlemen's profits as to 

 be unattractive to the average consumer. In fact, if conditions of 

 distribution were what they should be, consumers in interior towns 



