i84 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



directors he recommends that a pool of a certain size be 

 declared for that time. After deliberation the directors 

 accept or modify his plan, and declare, say, an April pool 

 of 15 per cent. Then the association manager informs 

 each grower that the picking gang will be on hand at a 

 designated time to pick 15 per cent, of his fruit. The 

 grower distributes the picking boxes and hauls his fruit to 

 the packing house as it is picked. Here it is brushed, 

 graded, weighed, packed, pre-cooled and loaded on the car 

 which has been ordered and placed by the manager of the 

 district exchange. 



At this point the direct responsibility for the car is shifted 

 from the association to the district manager. The latter 

 bills the car in the name of the district exchange to the 

 agent of the California Fruit Growers Exchange at, for 

 example, Chicago. Each day the inspectors along the line 

 apprise the district manager, through the bulletin of the 

 central exchange, of the whereabouts and condition of the 

 car. The manager is also getting daily market reports, 

 and as the car nears its destination he finds that the Chicago 

 market is highly unfavorable. He also learns that the 

 condition of the car is such that it needs to be pushed into 

 immediate consumption. So he orders the agent at Chicago 

 to divert it only as far as to the agent at Detroit where the 

 market appears to be stronger, though the market at Provi- 

 dence is even higher, and if the fruit had shown little decay 

 it would have been ordered there. He instructs the agent 

 at Detroit to sell it at not less than a certain price and if 

 this much is not offered to report the best bid and await 

 further directions. If the acceptable price is forthcoming 

 the agent makes the sale and reports the fact through the 

 central Los Angeles office. If no satisfactory offer occurs 

 the manager either lowers his price until the car will be 

 taken, or he rediverts it to yet another market where the 

 same process is repeated. 



