COOPERATIVE CITRUS-FRUIT MARKETING AGENCIES. 7 
able business ability, experienced in the handling, grading, and pack- 
ing of citrus fruit, and His personality must be such as to inspire the 
confidence of the members of the association. Although the board 
of directors must pass upon all questions of general policy, such 
policies should be initiated by the manager. In the exchange system 
it is possible to find extremes in the amount of authority given the 
manager. In some exceptional instances the manager is virtually a 
dictator; in others his powers and authority are extremely limited. 
In most cases, however, the manager does not attempt to put into 
effect changes that lack the support of the directors and stockholders, 
although he properly takes the lead in determining policies. The 
general principles of successful management which obtain in all 
commercial enterprises apply to this field, and have been discussed so 
frequently that no elaboration is required. 2 
SPECIAL OPERATING PROBLEMS. 
Careful Handling. 
The value of a perishable agricultural product may be greatly 
reduced if careless harvesting and packing methods are employed. 
An important function of the packing-house manager and his assist- 
ants is to insure the uniformly careful handling of the fruit. After 
the fruit is received at the packing house, it is handled largely by 
machinery, and the human element is a less important factor than 
in the harvesting operations. Nevertheless, considerable injury may 
be caused by graders and packers, unless they are carefully instructed 
and supervised. In addition, the packing-house machinery must be 
of such kind and must be kept in such condition of repair that the 
fruit will not be injured in the various operations. 
The purpose of the general insistence on care is to reduce to a 
minimum decay in transit and on the market. Under careless han- 
dling conditions, a blue mold fungus may be the cause of heavy loss. 
As this is practically the only fungus that causes commercial decay of 
California oranges, and is by far the most serious of the various fungi 
attacking lemons, its elimination goes far toward solving the decay 
problem. 
The loss from decay in transit, or, in the case of lemons, in storage 
and transit, is a deduction from the receipts of the growers concerned. 
Lemons that decay in the curing room are not subject to packing, 
freight, or selling charges; but the sound fruit must pay a larger pro- 
portion of the expense of sorting and handling, on account of the 
necessary removal of the decayed fruit. Oranges or lemons that 
decay while en route to market have been subject to all handling 
charges, to the selling charge of the central organization, and to 
transportation charges. Such decay is a direct loss to the producer. 
Furthermore, although the shipper may make an " allowance" to 
the car-lot buyer on account of decay, the buyer must get the same 
margin, on the average, for handling a box of oranges with 10 per 
cent decay as for one which is sound. The consumer therefore pays 
proportionally more for the sound fruit. 
In addition to this direct loss, there is an indirect loss which is 
equally important. A brand or association may quickly obtain an 
8 See Cumberland, W. W., Cooperative Marketing, pp. 80-81. 1917. 
