88 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



ticular orchard designated in the certificate. There is rarely 

 any hesitation about accepting an applicant for admission, 

 provided his grove is properly tributary to the association 

 in which he has made application. On the contrary all asso- 

 ciations are constantly on the lookout for new members, as 

 a large volume of fruit tends to reduce the unit packing 

 charges and added acreage lightens the acre apportionment 

 of investment tied up in the packing plant. Because of the 

 machinery requisite for the expulsion of a member or for 

 the rejection of his crop if worthless, there is little dis- 

 advantage and much of positive advantage in having a 

 wide open membership. 



Some associations do very properly deny membership to 

 some who would like to join. But they do this, not by dis- 

 criminating against individual growers, but by drawing lines 

 of demarcation which separate areas which they are willing 

 to include from areas subject to frost or other injuries which 

 in the judgment of the associations make the fruit grown 

 on those areas an unsatisfactory risk. No person has just 

 cause for complaint merely because an association with a 

 reputation for superior fruit decides that the district in 

 which his grove is located is not able to produce fruit of 

 equal quality and therefore declines to extend the privileges 

 of membership to orchards in the less advantageous region. 

 More associations, however, adopt the philosophy that in- 

 ferior fruit takes care of itself automatically through the 

 grading regulations, and that growers geographically tribu- 

 tary to a packing house should not be excluded from mem- 

 bership. For even the fruit of poor growers is going to 

 be shipped, and it will do less damage to the interests of 

 the growers as a whole if sold through the association than 

 if left outside, possibly to come upon the market at un- 

 propitious times. 



A rule against receiving new members, except purchasers 



