Bureau op Agricultuee 507 



change in price made they will all be notified. In dealing with in- 

 dividuals this is not very often the ease. It was formerly a practice 

 of the buyer to go into a certain locality and find some man who 

 was not very well informed as to price, or not a very good trader, 

 and beat him down and secure his crop' at a very low figure, and then 

 use this as a basis to attempt to buy the rest of the crop. Nine cases 

 out of ten it was successful. 



For an association to succeed it is necessary that a good manager 

 be employed. It is too often the case at first that some member of 

 the association is employed as manager, many times because of his 

 failure in every other business. With such a start it is almost fore- 

 ordained that he will also fail in this. 



When apples are graded according to association rules it is 

 possible to have a uniform grade throughout the district. This 

 would not be the ease if individuals were left to establish their own 

 grades. Every grower, of course, thinks he has the best fruit in 

 the section and what to him might be Extra Fancy might be Fancy 

 or "C" grade to some other grower. A grade can also be established 

 that will not vary from year to year. One of the things that has 

 made the Hood River Association so successful is the fact that from 

 the first their grade was standardized. If a person buys a box of 

 Hood River Fancy Apples this year and wants a box just like it 

 next year, he can be sure he will get absolutely the same quality of 

 fruit, or if there is any difference, he will get a better quality, for 

 the grade and pack has been gradually improved from year to year. 



There are successful growers' associations in all fruit districts 

 now, but until recently they were acting individually and competing 

 against each other in the markets. Two years ago there was formed 

 a Central Selling Association known as the North Pacific Fruit Dis- 

 tributors, embracing most of the fruit districts of Oregon, Washing- 

 ton, Idaho and Montana. This main office has nothing to do with 

 the grading, picking, packing, etc., but attends entirely to the selling 

 of fruit and buying supplies. The Central Association formulated 

 rules by which the grading and packing are to be done, but the en- 

 forcement of these are left to the district and local associations. 

 This organization now controls about 60% of the output of these 

 four states and they are able to have a say as to the price the fruit 

 shall be sold for. 



Advertising. 



Within the last iew years there has been a very large increase 

 in the area of apples planted in the northwest and as this comes 

 into bearing it will be necessary that a wider market be found for the 

 product. This must either be done by exploiting new markets or by 

 increasing consumption in the old ones. 



The citrus growers' took care of their largely increased output 



