MARKETING EASTERN GRAPES. 19 



Such abuses are usually founded upon the growers' ignorance of 

 marketing conditions and their failure to interest outside competi- 

 tion. Publicity, which informs dealers in other sections of the local, 

 conditions and induces them to enter the deal, often provides the 

 necessary competition. Cooperation between the growers to perform 

 themselves, and for their own profit, the functions of the local buyer, 

 is another alternative. 



Conditions are seldom improved by individual growers entering 

 the field of marketing and trying to compete with the buyer, for in 

 few such cases is the acreage controlled by any grower sufficient to 

 enable him to ship easily in carload lots and the necessary connec- 

 tions with the trade in large terminal markets usually are lacking. 

 Too often the power of monopolistic local buyers is strengthened 

 by the failures of growers who have attempted to break away and 

 enter the field of marketing. 



Most local buyers or carlot assemblers try to dispose of their stock 

 to city carlot receivers on shipping-point basis, as the speculative 

 features of their business are thereby reduced to a minimum. When 

 their reputation for financial soundness and integrity has been estab- 

 lished they are usually successful. This type of factor may dispose 

 of his crop in any of the numerous ways which are also open to the 

 grower — on consignment, to traveling city buyers through exchanges, 

 to juice factories, etc. 



In a few cases carlot assemblers at shipping points have developed 

 businesses similar in their methods to cooperative marketing associa- 

 tions, in that they handle the product of some of the growers in their 

 locality, acting merely as an agent and making a certain fixed charge 

 per package. An example of this method is to be found at North 

 East, Pa. 



SALES THROUGH COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS. 3 



In many of the more important sections grape growers have taken 

 advantage of the possibilities of collective action by the formation of 

 cooperative associations. Cooperation is the act of working with 

 others for a common benefit, and in marketing fruit it is most prac- 

 tical in its application to crops of which a few standard varieties 

 ripen at the same time. Thus it has proved of great value in the 

 grape industry. 



As these associations take charge of the marketing of the grapes 

 produced by their members, they perform a function in the industry 

 quite analagous to that of the local buyer or car-lot assembler. The 

 associations generally receive the grapes at the car door, load them 



3 See Bassett, C. E. ; Moomaw, C. W. ; and Kerr, W. H. Cooperative Marketing and 

 Financing of Marketing Associations. In Yearbook U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 1914. 



