WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 21 
jobbers, retailers, and consumers and enable some produce to pass 
directly from the grower to the consumer. As a rule they are not 
highly important factors in the distribution of perishables arriving 
in car lots from distant production areas. During late years more 
and more attention has been directed toward extending the useful- 
ness of this form of distribution. 1 
DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS. 
The foregoing discussions indicate in a general way the great com- 
plexity which attends the distribution of food products. The im- 
pression may have been left, however, that all perishables pass 
through each of the steps in distribution which have been noted. 
This is not the case, as various factors decide what channels each 
shipment is to take. A complete discussion of the various means 
by which produce is collected, concentrated at market centers, and 
finally distributed to consumers is impracticable in a publication of 
this kind. Perhaps the subject can be made more clear by graphic 
representation of the more common steps in distribution. 
In figure 2 the interlocking circles are intended to show the inti- 
mate relationship existing between certain of the agencies interested 
in distribution. Thus the grower may operate individually or he 
may combine with his neighbors and all do business collectively or 
through a cooperative organization. On the other hand, one firm 
often performs the functions of the car-lot wholesaler, the commis- 
sion merchant, and the jobber, and the business details overlap in 
such a way that it is difficult to dissociate the three lines of business. 
In a single diagram of this kind it is impossible to indicate all the 
possibilities. Attention has been confined, therefore, to primary dis- 
tributing channels. 
An attempt has been made to emphasize the routes through which 
the great bulk of traffic passes. Perishables do not and can not 
pass through the hands of all the distributing agencies which are 
indicated. As a matter of fact, usually only a few agencies are 
instrumental in handling the contents of any given car. The con- 
tents of two cars coming to a large market on the same day may pass 
into consumption through very different channels. Thus one car 
may be consigned to a commission merchant, who divides the car 
among a large number of jobbers and retailers, while the other car 
may be purchased by a buyer for a car-lot wholesaler who sells to 
the jobbing and retail trade. In either case the retailer is the inter- 
mediary with whom the consumer comes in contact. 
1 For a discussion of the place and needs of city markets, see " Retail Public Markets," 
by 0. V. Branch, Yearbook U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1914, pp. 167-184. (Y. B. Sepa- 
rate 636.) 
