14 BULLETIN 861, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
tions, where surplus of production over local demand necessitates 
shipment to distant markets. 
Grapes usually move successively from the grower to the local 
carlot assembler . (local buyer or cooperative association), to carlot 
distributor (sometimes), to city carlot receiver, to jobber, to retailer, 
and then to consumer. Of course, there are many short cuts and 
variations to this method which have been worked out to meet indi- 
vidual conditions and requirements. It may seem cumbersome and 
inefficient to pass the fruit through so many hands, but when it is 
considered that sometimes the grapes of 50 or 60 growers are in- 
cluded in a car which may be shipped a great distance, per- 
haps as far as from New York to Colorado, or from Michigan to 
Texas, and that often the contents of the car go to over 2,000 differ- 
ent ultimate consumers, the difficulties of the problem and the need 
for specialization by the handlers are apparent. If division of labor 
and specialization are commended in manufacturing plants, should 
they be condemned in the grape industry ? 
SALES BY GROWERS DIRECT TO LOCAL CONSUMERS. 
The simplest method of sale, that of producer direct to consumer, 
though open to all growers and to a limited extent practiced in all 
sections, is not of great commercial importance, and the larger the 
production of grapes in a section, the smaller is the relative im- 
portance which this method assumes. Farmers with small vineyards 
in a nongrape-producing locality often find a ready market among 
their neighbors, or they may haul their product to neighboring 
towns and villages and there peddle their crop. TThile the method 
is relatively unimportant, the quantity of grapes disposed of by 
this method in portions of the South, the Middle ^Vest, New Eng- 
land, and the North Atlantic States, outside of the specialized areas of 
grape production, is fairly large in the aggregate. The proportion 
of the consumer's dollar received by the farmer by this method may 
seem large, but it should be borne in mind that he has performed the 
functions of distributor, transportation company, jobber, and re- 
tailer, and is receiving payment for these services. 
SALES IN SMALL LOTS BY GROWERS TO NEIGHBORING CITY CONSUMERS. 
A second method is the direct sale by growers to consumers in 
neighboring cities and towns by express and parcel-post shipments. 
This has the general advantages and disadvantages of the former 
method and requires the services of less people in the distribution, but 
requires higher transportation charges than carlot shipments and 
necessarily reduces the possible marketing area. Also, as in the former 
case, this method is not feasible for large vineyards. The growth 
