METHODS 
doubtful if more than 2 per cent have 
ever been represented in person in any 
one season at Northwestern shipping 
points. Under less favorable conditions 
the percentage drops to a minor fraction 
of 1 per cent. It is on this minority 
factor that the individual fruit grower or 
shipper unaffiliated with any organized 
sales agency depends for his market, while 
he loses sight of the fact that 98 per cent 
or more of the total buying power is lost 
to him. 
While the cash demand f. o. b. in any 
comprehensive scheme of marketing is an 
important and not-to-be-disregarded part 
of the whole, it is equally true that any 
system.which does not provide means for 
reaching the 98 per cent or more of the 
trade who are the stay-at-homes or ab- 
sent buyers is fatally weak and wholly 
inadequate to meet industrial needs of a 
business which is inherently competitive. 
It is axiomatic that true value is the 
pivot on which supply and demand bal- 
ance. In order to secure maximum value 
100 per cent of the demand must be em- 
ployed; also, where the supply is increas- 
ing from year to year, new demand must 
be created at least to keep pace with the 
additional supply if decline in values 
would be prevented. If only 2 per cent or 
less of the demand is employed there will 
be many times when it will be found far 
inadequate to absorb the supply at prices 
profitable to the producer. 
Having seen then that the absent buy- 
ing class forms by far the most important 
section of the market, it will be interest- 
ing to note some of the machinery and 
some of the many operations in the pro- 
cess of a complete transaction between 
the merchant, i. e., the Northwestern pro- 
ducer, and his customer, i. e., the buyer in 
a distant market. 
When it is remembered that in the case 
ot Northwestern fruits the producer is 
distant about 2,500 miles from the. aver- 
age of his markets, the difficulties and 
complications of the business can be 
guessed, and will hereafter be illustrated. 
For purposes of demonstration a typical 
transaction has been selected, all docu- 
ments photographed and reproduced as 
under: 
EMPLOYED BY A FRUIT-MARKETING AGENCY 
1293 
Rortiwegierms  frolt Resteanse 
Purtiank: ores, | 
Set OF see Of Nome Sea tes eee 
me of Ewkter Ponoy 2, -Reasig Btete 
& * & ® ® pete. es es 
* 
Ses 
eee 
= 
* 
OR kee 
Figure 1 
S., a fruit grower of the Wenatchee val- 
ley, has a carload of Rome Beauties to 
sell. He makes a manifest of the lot, and 
mails it to his sales agency. 
Figure 2 
Bearing in mind that maximum value 
depends on the employment of maximum 
demand, the idea is now to offer this car 
to the whole trade, i. e., to everyone of 
