THE GROWERS' SELLING AGENCY 129 



and shipped according to market conditions as they develop. 

 If the Associations and their Members choose to pick, pack, 

 and market the crop according to individual judgment they 

 will of course not hold the Selling Agency responsible for 

 unsatisfactory returns. 



The full operation of the district exchange will appear 

 incidentally with the description of the central exchange 

 or California Fruit Growers Exchange. Only another word 

 is necessary at this juncture. An alert district exchange 

 may be one of the chief causes of prosperity, or the re- 

 verse, for a whole community. If considerable authority 

 is delegated to it by the associations, the growers are al- 

 most entirely dependent on the district manager's astute- 

 ness for their welfare. This being the case, the district 

 manager bears a heavy responsibility. Since remunerative 

 prices depend in the long run on marketing high grade and 

 reliable fruit and since satisfactory returns to growers on 

 their investment depend on producing a large yield to the 

 acre of this desirable fruit, a district manager has not 

 realized his highest possibilities if he restricts himself abso- 

 lutely to marketing problems. 



Granted that one of the important functions of the asso- 

 ciation manager is to try to help his growers improve their 

 cultural methods. But the district manager has a wider 

 outlook than has the local manager, consequently he should 

 be a leader in progressiveness for his entire section and 

 transmit helpful information both as to growing, picking 

 and packing to the growers through the association man- 

 agers and as far as possible by direct contact with indi- 

 vidual growers. He should insist that all fruit sold 

 through his exchange come up to certain rigid require- 

 ments; he should train his associations to work for uni- 

 formity of product so that a regular, thoroughly satisfied 

 clientele can be built up. In short, the district manager 



