UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
||§ BULLETIN No. 1109 |§j| 
Washington, D. C. 
January 16, 1923 
SALES METHODS AND POLICIES OF A GROWERS' 
NATIONAL MARKETING AGENCY. 
A Study of the Organization and Achievements of Twenty-six Years of Cooperative 
Marketing by Part of the Cranberry Growers of the United States. 
By Asher Hobsox, Specialist in Market Research, and J. Burton* Chaney, one time 
Research Agent in Marketing, Bureau of Markets. 
Columt 
University in the City of New York and Bureau of Agricultural Economics, U. S. Department 
of Agriculture cooperating. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Introduction 1 
The evolution of marketing methods: 
Early cooperative selling associations 5 
The rise of national cooperation 7 
The American cranberry exchange 9 
Improvements resulting from cooperation: 
Grading 12 
Pooling 13 
Advertising 14 
Cooperation with the trade 19 
Coordinating demand with supply 20 
Page. 
Impracticability of price control 22 
The expense of marketing cranberries: 
Localassociations 27 
The central association 2% 
Transportation 29 
Jobbers ( wholesalers) 31 
Other wholesalers 31 
Retailmargins and prices 32 
Allmarketing expenses 34 
INTRODUCTION. 
The cranberry has fared better in times of stress than other farm 
products. For this reason the marketing methods of the cranberry 
growers have been analyzed in detail in the hope that this analysis 
may furnish suggestions that will be helpful in the marketing of other 
farm products. Although this discussion deals specifically with the 
marketing of cranberries by cooperative methods, it is not written 
for the cranberry grower alone. It is addressed to all growers 
interested in successful marketing methods. It deals with the 
economic and not the legal aspects of the subject. 
The noteworthy achievements of the cranberry growers are the 
outcome of evolutionary practices based upon 26 years of experience 
in selling through growers' cooperative agencies. The results of 
organized efforts in this industry are the more remarkable because of 
1936° -23 -Bull. 1109 1 
