I20 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



ceeds for the account of each association. The cost of the 

 district exchange to its member associations averages about 

 one cent a box. 



During the shipping season it is of course impossible to 

 estimate what the exact total cost of the exchange is going 

 to be at the end of the season. But the district exchange 

 has t6 meet its obligations as they arise, so a flat rate a box 

 is calculated which is expected to approximate as closely 

 as possible the actual rate, which can only become evident 

 at the end of the year, and this estimated brokerage is re- 

 tained from all shipments during the season. The rate is 

 ordinarily made high enough unquestionably to cover the 

 exchange's expenses, and at the conclusion of the fruit 

 year any surplus above actual costs is distributed among 

 the associations on the basis of the number of boxes shipped. 

 If the calculated rate of brokerage has been too low, each 

 association is assessed a uniform rate according to the 

 number of boxes shipped in order to meet the deficit. But 

 such assessment is almost never necessitated. 



There are, however, very different costs involved in sell- 

 ing different varieties of fruit and also in selling by 

 different methods. On lemons, for example, a higher 

 rate is assessed than on oranges, as the boxes are 6ne-sixth 

 heavier, so it would be unjust to an association shipping 

 oranges only if a uniform rate was assessed by the district 

 exchange against all the fruit handled, this total including 

 both oranges and lemons. Clearly, too, a car of fruit sold 

 through the efforts of the agents of the California Fruit 

 Growers Exchange has cost more for selling than a car 

 merely placed upon the auction market or a car that with- 

 out solicitation on anybody's part has been ordered by an 

 Eastern buyer from a packing association. Consequently, 

 a different rate of brokerage is retained for oranges and 

 for lemons, and the agreement permits a different rate for 



