18 BULLETIN 266, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
OUTRIGHT SALE OP GOODS BEFORE OR AT HARVEST. 
The outright sale of products before or at harvest does not need 
much elaboration, as these sales are for cash and the producer can 
treat in person with the buyer. The only differences that may occur 
between sales of this class are in the terms. For instance, fruit may 
be sold to the buyer on the trees, in which case the buyer estimates 
the probable yield and offers a lump price for the whole crop. In this 
case the buyer attends to picking, packing, and delivering the fruit, 
and the grower is relieved of all further responsibility. Many orchard- 
ists object to this method of sale, claiming that the pickers and packers 
hired by the buyer do great damage to the trees while gathering the 
fruit. 
Growers who object to this method of sale pick and pack the fruit 
themselves, preparing it in marketable shape, and sell the fruit at 
the orchard. In this case the buyer attends only to loading the fruit 
on the cars and to its disposition on the market, the grower receiving 
his money at the time of sale. A variation of this method occurs 
when the grower sells the crop while on the trees, but payment is 
deferred until after the fruit is picked, packed, and delivered. 
Another common type of outright sales occurs when the buyer con- 
tracts to use only fruit of a certain grade, in which case the orchardist 
must find other outlets for the remaining grades. 
SALES ON P. O. B. TERMS. 
Sales on f. o. b. terms, due to improved standardization of farm 
products, are forming a continually increasing portion of the total 
sales of produce, although the increase is very gradual. 
"F. o. b." means "free on board." As sales may be made "f. o. b. 
point of origin" or Cl i. o. b. destination," the grower should always 
be careful to specify whether he means free on board at point of 
origin or delivered at destination. If the terms of the sale are f. o. b. 
place of shipment, then the purchaser will have the goods he intends 
to buy delivered and loaded into the car without any expense to 
himself. On the other hand if the terms of the shipment read "f, o. b. 
destination" it means that the freight must be delivered at destination 
freight paid, or if the freight is not prepaid the purchaser may deduct 
these charges from the invoice before making remittance. 
In fruit and produce circles generally, the term f . o. b. is commonly 
understood to mean a sale at point of origin, with inspection privileges 
at destination. These sales are called "f. o. b. destination," "f. o. b. 
usual terms," or "delivered sales." 
Sales on f. o. b. terms may be made either to traveling representa- 
tives of distributors or by correspondence with city connections. The 
former is the most common method of sale for the average eastern 
shipper who is not handling large quantities of any one type of produce 
