Commercial Disposal of the Sweet Potato 253 



vantages of such work are obvious. As sweet potato 

 shipping associations become more numerous and better 

 organized, the commission house will be less used. The 

 employment of a special salesman is, however, a heavy 

 expense which the greater number of small associations 

 cannot afford to bear, and different substitutes for such 

 a representative have been tried. Theoretically, if a 

 large number of separate associations had their special 

 salesmen on the markets, they would eventually be com- 

 peting against each other and thus defeat the original 

 principles of cooperation. This condition would be 

 likely to occur more quickly with an association handling 

 only one commodity. Instead of employing salaried 

 salesmen, some associations have merely agreed with 

 some standard selling agency in the market to handle 

 all of their output. Such an agency might, of course, 

 make similar agreements with any number of other 

 associations. It is possible that as the sweet potato 

 industry grows, centralized distributing associations 

 will eventually be established in the big cities which 

 will handle the business of a large number of associa- 

 tions and exchanges all over the country. At present 

 the exchanges either handle their sales direct or sell them 

 to various firms already on the market. 



Track and f. a, b. sales. — Perhaps the most satis^ 

 factory method of selling sweet potatoes is to contract 

 them to a reliable firm for a specified price delivered 

 free on board the cars. This relieves the grower of any 

 further responsibility, does not require him to wait for 

 his money, and when a sufficient shipment is being made 

 to attract the buyer to the loading point, better net 

 returns are frequently received. A track sale means 

 selling the potatoes at the car on the track nearest the 



