1306 
structive to the mutual confidence which 
is the basis of co-operation. 
The next point to be considered is the 
amazing short-sighteduess of our in- 
dustrial sales policy. We have done prac- 
tically nothing to create and stimulate a 
demand for our own products. We have 
moved along the lines of least resistance. 
We have had no very clear idea of how 
our product reached the market and no 
concern about what became of it when it 
got there so long as the price of it was in 
our pockets. 
At last, stung by a touch of adversity 
out of our erstwhile complacency, but still 
without general understanding on the 
part of our rank and file of the media 
and processes of trade, and the laws of 
merchandising, it is perhaps natural that 
in the general confusion of the public 
mind, and the general desire to fix the 
responsibility for our misfortunes, we are 
disposed to take a crack at every head 
that shows itself—the middleman, the 
railroad company, the sales agency, the 
manager of the local association. Because 
it is human nature to fear and distrust, 
most, the things that we least understand, 
those factors farthest from us come in 
for the larger share of the blame. Where- 
as, I repeat, nearly all of our trouble 
comes from within, not without, and from 
our misconception of our problem. 
Nature of the Problem 
In the first place, ours is a manufac- 
turing and merchandising problem, rath- 
er than one of simple farming. There- 
fore, we must employ the methods of the 
manufacturer-merchant rather than those 
of the farmer. We are manufacturing an 
article of food, which we desire to place 
in the hands of millions of consumers, all 
over the world, taking in exchange their 
money. Our problem is, then, the deliv- 
ery of our products into the hands of 
these millions of consumers in the most 
economical manner, and the return of 
the money to ourselves in the shortest 
possible space of time, and with the least 
possible cost of service. The processes by 
which these things are done under mod- 
ern conditions of civilization are always 
complicated, but in our case are rendered 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
infinitely more go by, first, the perishable 
nature of our merchandise, and, second, 
the isolation of our plant from the mar- 
kets. Our factory is 2,500 miles distant 
from the average of our markets. What 
is the solution of this problem? 
In the writer’s judgment, the solution 
lies in intelligent, universal co-operation. 
Co-operation is a word freely used, but, 
unfortunately, not always understood, 
and most often the user of it does not 
think of co-operation as extending be- 
yond himself and his neighbors. The 
writer would have you think of it as ap- 
plying all the way down the line, from 
the producer, through the bankers, the 
railroads, the wholesalers, the retailers, 
right up to and including the ultimate 
consumers of his merchandise. He would 
also have you remember that education is 
the companion of co-operation. 
1o-operation Amongst Ourselves 
This we are learning gradually to do, 
though as yet we have gone but a little 
way along the road. 
Co-operation With Bankers 
Fortunately, the bankers are being 
roused to their responsibilities toward 
the industry and an appeal made to their 
intelligent self-interest. It is to be hoped 
and confidently expected that soon they 
will accept their full share of that re- 
sponsibility and help to work out a sys- 
tem so safe and so conservative that they 
can afford to lower their present almost 
prohibitive rates of interest. In this con- 
nection, consider the history of the larg- 
est single fruit industry in the United 
States—the United Fruit Company. This 
company started out with $10,000,000 cap- 
ital, and undertook to reorganize a busi- 
ness that was unprofitable and unsatisfac- 
tory to all concerned. Their capital is now 
$36,000,000. They have paid during the last 
four years 25 per cent dividends on thirty 
odd millions of capital and accumulated 
profits of $16,000,000. Their securities 
in the New England market, and in Bos- 
ton on the stock exchange, are considered 
so stable that the savings banks and the 
conservative bankers and brokers recom- 
mend them to widows and children as in- 
vestments. This, too, in spite of the fact 
