44 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



ner similar to that which was employed by the famous pipe 

 pool. So far as is known no written agreements have come 

 to light, but the facts are undoubted that for practical pur- 

 poses the territory was assigned among the various firms 

 of buyers and that firms would refrain from invading one 

 another's territory. That is, a grower would receive a bid 

 for his crop from a certain buyer, and he would receive no 

 other bids. Then, too, the prices offered were strangely 

 uniform in comparison with the wide fluctuations which the 

 Eastern market was constantly exhibiting. 



Selling on commission was hardly more satisfactory. 

 According to this plan the grower raised his fruit, had it 

 packed, and then either sold it through a California shipper 

 or consigned it to some commission firm in the East. At 

 that time selling on order had not become highly developed, 

 so if sold through a California shipper the fruit was usually 

 started rolling toward the market which seemed to ofifer 

 the greatest possibilities. But the journey was a long one, 

 delays were frequent, rough handling and poor ventilation 

 or refrigeration were the rule. When the fruit finally 

 reached its destination decay might have developed until 

 the product was practically unsalable, the weather might 

 be adverse, or the market might be over supplied. In any 

 of these contingencies an individual grower might incur 

 a loss which favorable prices for the rest of his crop might 

 not more than recoup. In other words, by this method 

 risks were undistributed. 



If his fruit was consigned to a commission merchant in 

 the East, the grower was subject in a peculiar degree to 

 all the possibilities of exploitation involved in that system. 

 The owner and agent were at the opposite sides of the 

 continent, and the likelihood of detection in betrayal of trust 

 was small. Decay was frequently heavy, so a grower was 

 not likely to become suspicious over a report that the ship- 



