THE GROWERS' SELLING AGENCY 115 



association, but its members or stockholders, instead of 

 being individuals, are the associations themselves. The 

 manner in which district exchanges arise is as follows: 

 Several packing associations in a more or less distinct geo- 

 graphical area unite to form a separate organization which 

 is to sell the fruit of all the member associations. Some 

 of these exchanges have but two or three member associa- 

 tions and one has eighteen, but the average membership 

 is about seven. There are no hard and fast rules for de- 

 termining the boundaries of the various exchanges, the 

 guiding principle simply being that a selling exchange has 

 a better chance to serve its members satisfactorily if the 

 fruit which it is called upon to market is somewhat similar 

 in general characteristics. However, there is nothing what- 

 ever to prevent associations with very dissimilar outputs 

 from forming a district exchange if they see fit. 



As was done with the packing association, let us take 

 a typical district exchange and trace through its structure 

 and mode of procedure. The structure need not long de- 

 tain us. The district exchange has no stockholders or mem- 

 bers except one elected representative from each association. 

 All of these elected representatives are directors, and each 

 has voting power on questions of policy proportionate to 

 the number of packed boxes which his association sells 

 through the exchange. The directors of the local associa- 

 tion aimually elect their director to serve on the district 

 exchange. Frequently the president of the board or the 

 manager of the association is chosen. Consequently the 

 local associations control absolutely the policy of the dis- 

 trict exchange, and no policy could possibly be pursued 

 which did not command the support of the associations. 

 For the local directors instruct their representative on the 

 district exchange and are in turn held accountable by the 

 growers for what goes on within the district exchange as 

 well as within their own packing house. 



