1278 
any fruit year, thereby making his con- 
tinued connection with the association 
voluntary. The contract should specify 
a penalty to be assessed against every 
package of fruit sold outside of the asso- 
ciation, this penalty to equal not less 
than 25 per cent of the value of the 
fruit. Under any other plan an associa- 
tion cannot build on a solid foundation. 
It cannot foresee the probable volume of 
business to be transacted, nor can it 
provide the means to purchase the sup- 
plies for handling the crop or reach that 
degree of stability that is essential to the 
success of a business undertaking. The 
membership contract with the grower is 
the foundation stone on which the busi- 
ness of the association is reared and 
without which its existence and stability 
are problematical. 
(Co-operation in the Purchase of Supplies 
In every co-operative association there 
should be a division for the purchase, sale 
or manufacture of supplies of every kind 
used in the production, packing, handling, 
shipping and marketing of the crop. The 
association should be prepared to pur- 
chase fertilizers, materials and equip- 
ment for spraying and fumigation; the 
facilities used in frost protection, prun- 
ing or harvesting; orchard machinery, or 
any other equipment on which a saving 
can be made by co-operative purchasing. 
It should be prepared to purchase the 
supplies for fruit handling and market- 
ing, such as box shooks or packages, pick- 
ing boxes, nails, wrapping paper, and all 
kinds of packing-house equipment. 
The money needed to operate this pur- 
chasing division may be raised by as- 
sessment, by the individual notes of the 
directors of the association, or in other 
ways. The association should sell the 
supplies to the members at a fair mar- 
ket price, and at the end of the season 
should prorate the surplus to the mem- 
bers or invest it in the business, after 
deducting the operating charges, deprecia- 
tion and other necessary expenses, in- 
cluding interest on the assets and capital 
devoted to this supply division. 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
Co-operation in the Handling of Fruit 
The condition in which fruit reaches 
the consumer depends largely on the care 
with which it is handled. The most 
common rots of apples and pears, of small 
fruits, and of citrus fruits are directly 
related to the mechanical bruising of the 
fruit, most of the diseases not having 
the power of penetrating a healthy, un- 
injured skin. The association must there- 
fore provide rigid rules for picking. It 
must either supervise the harvesting, 
grading and packing of the fruit and pro- 
vide for the most rigid inspection of 
every lot before it is accepted by the 
association for shipment, or else the har- 
vesting, grading and packing must be 
done by the association. In most of the 
associations where the fruit is not packed 
in central packing houses it is picked 
and packed by the grower according to 
the rules of the association, and inspected 
by an employee of the association before 
it is accepted for shipment. 
This system works fairly well with the 
small deciduous fruits, which have to be 
handled quickly from the field to the 
consumer. It is not a satisfactory sys- 
tem to apply to the citrus fruits or to 
the apple or pear crops. With these the 
handling, grading and packing must be 
standarized, and this can be done only 
when the association controls all of the 
handling operations or actually performs 
them. Many apple associations establish 
rules of grading and packing. The asso- 
ciation grower picks and packs the fruit, 
and the association accepts or rejects it by 
inspecting the packages when delivered at 
the railroad station, the association ware- 
house or some other point. But experi- 
ence has shown that the grower can 
rarely be depended on to pick and pack 
the fruit in the best manner. It requires 
skilled labor, and fruit grading and pack- 
ing is an art that is acquired by few in- 
dividual fruit growers. An association, 
therefore, that operates on this principle 
seldom reaches the highest degree of suc- 
cess, and is likely to fail outright. A 
better plan is to have the grower pick 
the fruit when directed to do so by the 
