22 BULLETIN 1237, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
contributing. After the indebtedness is retired or reduced to a nom- 
inal amount, the same assessment is continued, and the entire 
amount, obtained through this assessment, or a portion of it, is used 
to retire the revolving fund; that is, to reimburse the growers who 
contributed an additional 3 cents per box to the fund. In this way 
the indebtedness of the association is retired in a reasonably short 
time; while the direct burden is distibuted over a number of years 
and is borne by growers entering the association some time after the 
packing house is constructed as well as by the original members. 
Many associations are financed by loans from individuals in addi- 
tion to money borrowed from the banks. One association is financed 
entirely by loans from its own members and a few friends or business 
associates of members. 
INDIVIDUAL SHIPPERS. 
A number of large growers operating their own packing houses are 
members of the California Fruit Growers Exchange, either through a 
direct contract with the exchange or through affiliation with one of 
the district exchanges. Such shippers may be individuals, or part- 
nerships, but are usually corporations. The harvesting and packing 
of the fruit is conducted as part of the farming operation, although 
it is under the direction of a packing foreman, or, if the business is 
sufficiently large, of a packing-house manager. In their relations with 
the exchange such shippers have the same standing as a local asso- 
ciation. If members of a district exchange, they are allowed 
representation on the board of directors on the same terms as the 
cooperative associations. It sometimes happens that such a shipper 
is elected by the district exchange to represent it on the board of 
directors of the California Fruit Growers Exchange. 
Individual shippers differ from the packing companies in that they 
pack and ship, as a rule, only their own fruit. In some instances 
such a shipper may handle, as an accommodation, the fruit of one or 
two of his neighbors who wish to obtain the benefit of the exchange 
service and are not located within a convenient distance of a cooper- 
ative packing house. 
PACKING COMPANIES. 
There are several commercial companies, members of the California 
Fruit Growers Exchange, which are engaged in the business of pack- 
ing oranges or lemons for a specified charge per box. The growers 
whose fruit is handled by such a company receive the benefit of the 
exchange marketing service. The agreement of a grower of this 
class is solely with the packing company, which undertakes to pack 
his fruit for a certain fixed price and to market it at cost or for a 
fixed amount per box. 
The company contracts directly with the exchange or with a dis- 
trict exchange to market the fruit of its clients, and by so doing it 
obtains the status of an association: and, if a member of a district 
exchange, it is entitled to representation upon the board. 
Companies of this kind, though of direct value 4 to growers not in a 
financial position or not forming a sufficiently compact unit to 
organize an association, do not give the growers the full value of 
cooperative marketing. They do, however. give the grower the bene- 
fit of the exchange selling organization and the prestige of its adver- 
