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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1261 
Washington, D. C. 
July 22, 1924 
OPERATING METHODS AND EXPENSE OF COOPERATIVE 
• CITRUS-FRUIT MARKETING AGENCIES. 
By A. W. McKay, Specialist in Agricultural Cooperation, and W. Mackenzie 
Stevens, Formerly Associate Marketing Specialist, Bureau of Agricultural 
Economics. 
CONTENTS. 
Page. 
Organization of the exchange system 1 
Harvesting operations and expense 3 
Packing-house operation fi 
Management 6 
Special operating problems 7 
Careful handling 7 
Standardized grades 8 
Pools and payments to growers 9 
Regular packing-house operations 10 
Grading, sizing, and packing oranges 1 1 
Grading and packing lemons 12 
Loading orange and lemon shipments 1 4 
Page. 
Packing-house operation— Continued. 
Packing-house labor 14 
Packing-house expense _-_ 14 
Average expense ,. 18 
Increases in expense 21 
Variations in expense 23 
Growers' receipts 28 
Expense of distribution 30 
District exchange expense... 31 
Expense of the central exchange 31 
Expense of transportation 32 
Wholesale and retail margins 33 
Citrus-fruit growers of California have been marketing their fruit 
cooperatively for over 30 years. The stability of the cooperative 
associations that form the California Fruit Growers Exchange and 
the success with which they have solved various complex marketing 
problems make a study of the federation of more than usual value. 
The organization and development of the exchange have been de- 
scribed in an earlier bulletin. * This bulletin describes the operating 
methods of the local associations and discusses the factors which enter 
into the expense connected with the preparation of citrus fruit for 
market. Other marketing costs are treated briefly. 
ORGANIZATION OF THE EXCHANGE SYSTEM. 
The first cooperative citrus-fruit associations in California were 
organized in 1892. Three such organizations operated during the 
season 1892-93 and were believed by their members to furnish a 
much more satisfactory method of marketing citrus fruit than had 
hitherto been employed. During the summer of 1893 other local 
cooperative associations were formed and these associations were 
federated into seven district exchanges. The district exchanges 
1 A detailed description of the organization of the exchange system and the development of the organiza- 
tion will be found in Department Bulletin 1237, Organization and Development of a Cooperative Citrus- 
Fruit Marketing Agency. 
91058°— 24f- 
