MARKETING CABBAGE. 11 
representatives of city dealers and the coming crop is pledged as 
security. Additional credit is often supplied by fertilizer companies, 
who accept the grower's indorsed note, which falls due soon after the 
crop is harvested. More or less capital is loaned by the banks on 
notes of responsible growers. Cooperative associations sometimes 
finance their members in the purchase of supplies at planting and 
harvesting time. 
Loans made by dealers are issued to secure control of the crop. 
The dealers themselves obtain the money they lend from local banks 
or from their principals in some distant market center. These prin- 
cipals often borrow heavily from the city banks. 
Contracts for early cabbage usually include some advance to the 
grower on a per-acre basis, or the grower is furnished with necessary 
supplies — seed, fertilizer, crates, or cash. Various sales agreements 
are in vogue. Sometimes the early-cabbage grower contracts to 
deliver at a fixed price; sometimes a minimum or base price is stipu- 
lated with a division of returns above the base price; sometimes 
there is only an agreement to deliver to the contractor at market 
price less certain commissions for handling. 
In many areas there is a tendency to do away with the contract 
sale. It is principally used in new areas to encourage production or 
in those with a high percentage of tenancy. The practice often 
leads to overextension of credit and overplanting, because of the 
desire to sell supplies and to handle the crop. 
The prevailing system of financing growers in early-cabbage re- 
gions is illustrated by the practice in Florida. The aid furnished by 
financing agencies in this State ranges as high as 90 per cent of the 
money needed for growing, harvesting, and packing the crop in the 
purely trucking districts, and down to less than 25 per cent where 
trucking is secondary to citrus growing. For the State as a whole, 
growers are able to supply about 35 per cent from their own resources. 
Of the balance of 65 per cent the financial aid of fertilizer companies 
selling to growers on credit represents 30 per cent; while about 20 
per cent is furnished by local banks, and 15 per cent is money placed 
in the producing districts by city commission dealers. 
The usual practice of fertilizer companies is to take a three-months' 
5 per cent note from the grower. In some cases mortgages on real 
estate are taken as security, and in rare instances chattel mortgages. 
Money borrowed from banks is used primarily to pay labor em- 
ployed in harvesting and for buying crates and hampers. The usual 
loan is for three months. The common interest rate is 8 per cent, 
usually paid in advance; but 10 per cent is charged on contract 
loans. Crop liens are not taken by the banks. 
City commission firms play a relatively small part in financing 
the production of cabbage, as compared with other Florida truck 
crops. In only two districts are they represented to any extent. 
Instead of being made on an acreage basis, their loans to cabbage 
growers are in amounts corresponding to the individual needs, and 
are made with a view to securing marketing business rather than to 
finance production. Such loans are limited to 25 per cent of the 
expected market value of the crop. From 6 to 8 per cent interest is 
charged. Ordinarily no written agreement is made, but it is under- 
stood that the grower is to consign all his crop to the firm making 
the loan. In some cases a local dealer or city firm contracts for a 
