CONFERENCE ON CO-OPERATION 



79 



I didn't do quite so well, because the other fellow shipped so many 

 to that market. This is the greatest trouble we have in marketing. 

 One way to handle that is to have your man on the spot to look 

 after your cars when they get there. He could see that you are 

 treated fairly. He might be able to work out a better price. It 

 seems to me, gentlemen, that we should have a small association 

 covering part of one county or one county, and we should try to keep 

 one another informed as to what we are growing, and at what times 

 our crops are ready to market, and when we expect to ship. I think 

 that would be a splendid idea in working out a system so that we 

 might all act intelligently. 



I would say that we have hopes of perfecting very shortly a 

 system of grading and packing, which we hope will work out well, 

 having each man stamp his basket with his number. In that way, 

 we will be able to tell who is putting up the good produce and who 

 is putting up the poor. Some growers are a little careless in pack- 

 ing. We hope to work out a plan which will at least distinguish 

 the No. 1 pack from the poor in shipping mixed cars. Last year we 

 shipped cars with five or six commodities in the same car. We helped 

 to market plums that it would have been an impossibility for the 

 growers to market to advantage. There was a hea\y crop, and 

 there was no nearby market. It was impossible for a man to ship 

 a few baskets by express or freight, but by shipping in mixed cars 

 w^e took almost everything from small green plums up to large 

 Green Gages, and of course, had no way of telling who was the best 

 packer. That was the reason we conceived this idea. 



THE CHAUTAUQUA GRAPE SITUATION 



Question: There is a great deal of trouble about marketing 

 stuff in the Chautauqua grape belt. There is a growing uneasiness 

 among grape growers. The buyers take every possible advantage. 

 Is there anything on that subject? 



Mr. Cook: I would say that there is a great dissatisfaction in 

 the Chautauqua grape belt in the way that marketing is being 

 handled. The Grape Union does not handle over sixty per cent 

 of all the grapes that are marketed in the Chautauqua belt. This 

 has come about mostly through the growers themselves. There 

 was a time when the Union handled seventy -five or eighty per cent 

 of the grapes, but the independent buyer has been in the foreground 

 a great deal. The problem the Union has had was this. They would 



