OUTLETS AND METHODS OF SALE FOR SHIPPERS. 9 
This bulletin can not attempt to discuss the functions of these 
organizations in detail because it is written primarily for the indi- 
vidual grower who has no cooperative organization to handle his 
shipments for him. 1 
SALES DIRECT TO CONSUMERS. 
It is a common belief that the most direct outlet for producers, 
that is, the channel direct to consumers, is always the most simple 
and elementary of all channels of distribution. It is doubtful 
whether this is always true, for many difficulties lie in the way of a 
producer who attempts to get in touch with the final consumers of 
his commodities. There is no doubt as to the advantages, in that 
there are no intermediaries in the distribution of these goods and the 
producer is able to get much higher prices than he could if selling at 
wholesale. 
Before discussing direct methods of marketing it may be well to 
give some consideration to the difficulties involved, especially 
in the distribution in the larger cities. In the first place, there is 
the inconvenience of getting in touch with the consumers who are in 
the market for the particular commodities concerned and, in the 
second place, the difficulty of making collections and avoiding bad 
accounts. The average grower is fully occupied in supervising pro- 
duction on the farm, and it is troublesome enough for him to keep 
hi touch with general market conditions without attempting to han- 
dle all of the details necessitated by direct marketing. Finally, 
these direct channels are possible only in specialized cases where 
small quantities of goods are to be shipped, and it is seldom that 
large quantities of products from extensive farms or orchards can 
be disposed of through these outlets. Wholesale distribution must 
be resorted to in these cases. 
The principal methods of selling direct to consumer by the farmer 
may be summarized as follows : Direct delivery by wagon or motor 
truck; sales on public markets; express and parcel-post shipments; 
peddling from the car doors; and, finally, sales to factories, such as 
canning or pickling plants, cider mills, and grape-juice factories. 
' * DIRECT DELIVERY BY WAGON. 
Direct delivery by wagon or motor truck is practicable only where 
the farmer lives within a 25-mile radius of the consuming center. 
Hence this method affords an outlet only for the commodities pro- 
duced in the area immediately surrounding the market. Such 
deliveries are limited, in the main, to country towns and smaller 
cities. The automobile truck undoubtedly is enlarging this radius, 
1 See Bassett, C E.; Moomaw, C W., and Kerr, W. H. Cooperative marketing and financing of market- 
ing associations. In Yearbook U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1914. 
96016°— Bull. 266—15 2 
