THE GROWERS' SELLING AGENCY 119 



sales and receives the proceeds. But on the manner of 

 making sales and on the extent of the authority of the dis- 

 trict exchange over cars owned by the local associations 

 nothing is implied. And indeed in these matters the great- 

 est diversity of practice exists. Since the district exchange 

 is a creature and not the creator it can have no power be- 

 yond that which is delegated by each local association. 

 Within the same district exchange, moreover, one associa- 

 tion may delegate more power than another: one may 

 merely ask for advice from the district exchange in deter- 

 mining for itself the times and places of shipment; another 

 may look to the district exchange for the decision of these 

 matters. One association may not permit the consumma- 

 tion of any sale without its previous consent; another may 

 delegate to the district exchange the power to accept or 

 reject offers on its own responsibility. In all cases, how- 

 ever, sales are made through the district exchange : that is, 

 sales are in the name of the district exchange, for the ac- 

 count of the local association. Therefore all proceeds are 

 forwarded to the district exchanges for distribution to the 

 associations, no matter what degree of selling authority 

 the associations have conferred upon the exchange. 



The brokerage which the agreement permits the district 

 exchange to retain is not a percentage of the selling price 

 of the fruit, for such a plan would make some associations 

 pay at higher rates than others. Poor fruit always costs 

 as much to sell and usually more than good fruit does, and 

 it would be manifestly unfair to penalize associations with 

 superior products by retaining the same percentage of their 

 high prices as was retained from another association's low 

 prices. Instead, the total expenses of the district exchange 

 are computed and divided by the total number of boxes 

 sold through the exchange by all associations to find a com- 

 mon flat rate a box, which is then retained from the pro- 



