18 BULLETIN 266, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



OUTRIGHT SALE OF GOODS BEFORE OR AT HARVEST. 



The outright sale of products before or at harvest does not need 

 much elaboration, as these sales are for cash and the producer can 

 treat in person with the buyer. The only differences that may occur 

 between sales of this class are in the terms. For instance, fruit may 

 be sold to the buyer on the trees, in which case the buyer estimates 

 the probable yield and offers a lump price for the whole crop. In this 

 case the buyer attends to picking, packing, and delivering the fruit, 

 and the grower is relieved of all further responsibility. Many orchard- 

 ists object to this method of sale, claiming that the pickers and packers 

 hired by the buyer do great damage to the trees while gathering the 

 fruit. 



Growers who object to this method of sale pick and pack the fruit 

 themselves, preparing it in marketable shape, and sell the fruit at 

 the orchard. In this case the buyer attends only to loading the fruit 

 on the cars and to its disposition on the market, the grower receiving 

 his money at the time of sale. A variation of this method occurs 

 when the grower sells the crop while on the trees, but payment is 

 deferred until after the fruit is picked, packed, and delivered. 



Another common type of outright sales occurs when the buyer con- 

 tracts to use only fruit of a certain grade, in which case the orchardist 

 must find other outlets for the remaining grades. 



SALES ON F. O. B. TERMS. 



Sales on f. o. b. terms, due to improved standardization of farm 

 products, are forming a continually increasing portion of the total 

 sales of produce, although the increase is very gradual. 



"F. o. b." means "free on board." As sales may be made "f. o. b. 

 point of origin" or "f. o. b. destination," the grower should always 

 be careful to specify whether he means free on board at point of 

 origin or delivered at destination. If the terms of the sale are f. o. b. 

 place of shipment, then the purchaser will have the goods he intends 

 to buy delivered and loaded into the car without any expense to 

 himself. On the other hand if the terms of the shipment read "f. o. b. 

 destination" it means that the freight must be delivered at destination 

 freight paid, or if the freight is not prepaid the purchaser may deduct 

 these charges from the invoice before making remittance. 



In fruit and produce circles generally, the term f . o. b. is commonly 

 understood to mean a sale at point of origin, with inspection privileges 

 at destination. These sales are called "f. o. b. destination," "f. o. b. 

 usual terms." or "delivered sales." 



Sales on f . o. b. terms may be made either to traveling representa- 

 tives of distributors or by correspondence with city connections. The 

 former is the most common method of sale for the average eastern 

 shipper who is not handling large quantities of any one type of produce 



