1256 
Marketing Fruits 
Next to the growing of fruits the mar- 
keting is the most important to the pro- 
ducer. In fact, the manner of marketing 
and the profits or losses consequent upon 
it often determine whether any particu- 
lar person or community of persons can 
continue in the business of production. 
Methods of Marketing 
There are several different methods of 
marketing, among them the following: 
1. Barter, a system under which the 
producer exchanges his products for some 
other commodity. 
2. Huckstering, where the fruit is de- 
livered by the producer direct to the con- 
sumer. 
3. Selling to buyers who pay cash, ex- 
pecting to sell again at a profit. 
4, Consignment to commission men 
who handle the fruit on a commission 
basis and sell at auction to the retail 
trade, or to other merchants by any one 
of a number of methods in use. 
Selling agencies or associations of sell- 
ers have lately endeavored to form con- 
nections in all the fruit markets of the 
world and handle the fruit on a com- 
mission basis. The so-called “selling 
agencies” are large organizations of com- 
mission men with wider connections than 
the commission merchant could have, 
working as a mere individual or firm. 
Stock companies composed of a large 
number of stockholders who may or may 
not be growers are frequently formed 
representing capital necessary to finance 
the business. 
5. Co-operative marketing, where the 
growers only are members of the organi- 
zation, and where the form is that of 
pure co-operation. Stock is sold or a fee 
charged for membership in the associa- 
‘tion and each member has one and only 
‘one vote, regardless of the amount of 
fruit shipped through the association. 
6. Direct to consumers through “Mar- 
kets” established generally in the centers 
of trade to which the fruit is shipped and 
sold by the producers, the agents of the 
producers or by the managers of the 
market. 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
There are various modifications of the 
methods and some sellers employ any or 
all of them as circumstances dictate. A 
brief description of the various methods 
will be helpful in correctly understanding 
the systems named, and in understanding 
the value to the producer of a careful 
study of market conditions and the de- 
velopment of a good marketing system. 
Barter 
Money has come to be the universal 
medium of exchange, so that the system 
of barter of goods for goods has almost 
if not entirely disappeared. 
But in the beginning, and still in very 
primitive societies, the natural division 
of labor which results from differences in 
age, sex and natural ability gave rise to 
commodities which in the absence of 
money were exchanged for each other 
directly. Thus old men and boys could 
make bows and arrows while the strong 
men could hunt. The results of each 
kind of labor would be exchanged for each 
other without the use of any medium. 
On this simple basis the value of the 
articles exchanged was easily measured 
by balancing in the mind of each party 
to the trade the strength of his want for 
his own and the other man’s goods. 
The Idea of Value 
While the elements of the above situa- 
tion would be comparatively simple, the 
idea of what determines value is, even in 
such simple circumstances, not an easy 
conception to grasp, since many factors 
enter in to complicate it. Among the fac- 
tors which go to determine value, we 
may mention utility, or the usefulness 
of a given article and labor or the cost 
of production. The utility of a thing is 
determined by the number and strength 
of the wants which it supplies, i. e, by 
how badly we want or need it. 
But utility alone does not determine 
the market value of a thing or the price 
it will bring in exchange. As for example, 
the usefulness of air does not give it a 
market value, though manifestly we 
could not live without it. However, if 
there were only a limited amount of air 
and some one had it for sale, it would 
