16 BULLETIN 1415, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
To obtain a sufficient volume of business, private sales agencies 
and commission houses often find it necessary to finance the indi- 
vidual grower or cooperative association. In making these loans 
they require security similar to that which is acceptable to the cash 
buyer. 
Uooperaiace associations have methods of financing the growers. 
It is partly through efficient handling of this phase of their business 
that they are able to attract and hold their membership. A local 
association usually has contracts with its growers for delivery and 
disposition of the fruit. To obtain money to make cash advances, 
associations may take the growers’ notes to the bank and use them 
as security on which to borrow. They may use a crop mortgage 
or marketing contract also as security for a loan. Gseperative 
associations often obtain cash advances from private sales organiza- 
tions and commission firms. In each case the growers’ notes, 
together with the marketing contract, are taken as security. 
ealers, cooperative associations, and selling agencies who have 
capital stock and warehouse properties may offer them as security 
for loans. 
SELLING METHODS 
Growers of boxed apples market their fruit through various agen- 
cies. Cooperative associations sell their own fruit or contract its 
sale to private sales organizations. Local dealers are also an impor- 
tant factor in the marketing of the fruit. In some seasons traveling 
dealers and commission merchants are active in the deal. 
COOPERATIVE MARKETING 
Cooperative marketing associations are important, especially in 
Washington and Oregon. A single group of growers may form a 
local association and hire a salaried manager to handle the general 
business and sell the fruit. Local groups may join federated asso- 
ciations which either hire a salaried manager to sell the fruit, or 
contract the selling to a private sales organization. Locals have 
been created to perform various activities connected with the har- 
vesting of the annual crop, to prepare the fruit for market, to operate 
packing houses and storage plants, to purchase supplies, to conduct 
advertising campaigns, and to sell the products Ee the farms and 
orchards. 
One reason for collective activity is that many of the things which 
need to be done in getting fruit ready for market can be done more 
efficiently and more economically when the activities are conducted 
on a large scale. Furthermore, sales can be more quickly made when 
standard products in uniform packages are offered in carload quan- 
tities. 
The locally owned and controlled associations seem to be well 
qualified to deal with the problems that arise in connection with 
harvesting, grading, and packing apples. Problems connected with 
activities that are largely local are satisfactorily handled by local 
agencies. The selling function is performed by some of the larger 
locals and by federations of locals contracting the selling to selling 
agencies, 
