MARKETING FRUITS—CO-OPERATION 
to time, the organizations are frequently 
attacked in the courts under one guise 
or another, and other insidious move- 
ments are started, all having in view the 
possible splitting open of the co-operative 
organizations and a return to the meth- 
ods of marketing which would destroy 
the systematic distribution and market- 
ing now in operation and reinstate the 
chaotic speculative methods that were 
formerly in vogue. The co-operative 
movement in the citrus industry is the 
result of a slow, painful evolution, and 
the grower does not appear to be deceived 
by these efforts, no matter how ingeni- 
ously and artfully they are conceived. 
Selling the Fruit by Co-operative 
Associations 
The co-operative associations sell the 
fruit in a variety of ways, the method 
of sale depending on the character and 
condition of the industry and the prac- 
tices that have grown up around it. A 
large proportion of the deciduous sum- 
mer fruits is sold f. 0. b. cars at the 
point of production, subject to inspection 
on arrival in market, or for cash f. o. b. 
cars, or at auction. Some are consigned 
to commission merchants. From 25 to 
30 per cent of the citrus fruits of Cali- 
fornia are sold at public auction in the 
Hastern and Central Western markets, 
and a large proportion of the Western 
deciduous fruits is sold in this manner. 
Among the apple associations it is a 
common practice to send to the trade in 
advance of the harvest a catalogue of the 
probable number of boxes of the different 
varieties and sizes of the higher grades 
of fruit that the association has for sale, 
and finally to sell the fruit to the highest 
f. o. b. bidder. The lower grades are 
consigned to commission firms, are sold 
for cash, or are marketed in other ways. 
Few of the organizations, except those 
that transact a large business—-like the 
citrus-fruit growers of Florida and Cali- 
fornia, the peach shippers of Georgia, and 
the deciduous-fruit shippers of California 
—have attempted to regulate the distribu- 
1283 
tion of their products throughout the 
country, nor have any serious attempts 
been made to carry the distribution be- 
yond the wholesale dealer, the broker, or 
the auction companies. The co-operative 
method has brought about large econo- 
mies in the purchase of supplies, in the 
cost of preparing the fruit for shipment, 
and in the charges for distribution and 
sale. It has improved the methods of 
fruit packing and grading enormously. 
It has sometimes doubled the net returns 
to the individual grower for his product. 
The difference in the price that the asso- 
ciation receives for the fruit and that 
which the consumer pays is often 100 per 
cent or more higher than the original 
selling price, and this contracts consump- 
tion. 
As long as the country is prosperous 
and the present method of distribution 
and sale does not cause a disastrous 
over-supply in the principal markets, the 
growers will be satisfied to continue the 
methods now in operation. But as the 
fruit business increases it will be neces- 
sary for the growers’ associations to de- 
velop methods for increasing consump- 
tion. This will be accomplished by a 
more general distribution of their prod- 
ucts, by the development of their asso- 
ciations into marketing organizations, by 
equalizing the distribution of the fruit 
over a longer period through a greater 
use of cold-storage warehouses, by stimu- 
lating a greater interest in fruit con- 
sumption through systematic advertising, 
and by placing the fruit in the consumer’s 
hand at a cost nearer that which the 
producer himself receives. As the Ameri- 
can fruit business increases, the grower 
may be expected to bring about as great 
an improvement in the methods of dis- 
tributing and selling his products to the 
consumer as he has already accomplished 
in the handling, grading, packing and 
preparation of the fruit for market. 
G. Harotp POWELL, 
Pomologist and Acting Chief, 
Bureau of Plant Industry 
(1910 Year-book) 
