THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
473 
189*7 
Successful Co-operative Selling and Buying. 
The selling' of produce is receiving more and more 
attention from farmers. Formerly most of the produce 
was bartered at the country store, or sold to the 
produce dealer, the matter of price being left wholly 
to the buyer. Where there was sharp competition, 
the latter was generally as high as circumstances 
would warrant; but combinations among buyers 
usually looked after this, and prices were not allowed 
to go too high. Then the commission trade has be¬ 
come a prominent feature in every large city, but the 
shipper often suffered here from various unjust exac¬ 
tions. Various attempts at cooperation among farmers 
and fruit growers for the purpose of selling their 
goods have been made ; some have been flat failures 
from various causes, some have attained only a mod¬ 
erate degree of success, while in a few cases, the 
objects sought have been attained. 
t X X 
Belonging to the last class is the Fruit Growers’ 
Union and Cooperative Society (Limited) of Hammon- 
ton, N. J. It was organized as a union of fruit grow¬ 
ers for cooperation in selling their products, 30 years 
ago, the cooperative society for the purpose of buy¬ 
ing goods being added 13 years ago. No other proof 
is needed of the success of the enterprise than the 
fact that ithaS'Continued to increase its business, and 
has added largely to its buildings and the facilities 
for doing business. The railroad has put in side¬ 
tracks leading to its store building, and affords every 
facility in the way of refrigerator and ventilated 
cars, for the safe and rapid transportation of its 
products. The store is a commodious two-story build¬ 
ing, and in it is found every conceivable article likely 
to be needed by the farmer and his family. This part 
of the business is separate from the shipping depart¬ 
ment, each being run on its own basis. Sales are 
made to non-members as well as to members. I asked 
whether much of a saving was effected by this cooper¬ 
ative store, and the answer was that not so much of a 
saving was made as formerly. Before this was 
started, the local storekeepers charged the fruit 
growers exorbitant prices, and many of the poorer 
ones were practically in their power, as they had to* 
receive credit until their fruit crops were sold. Since 
this store was started, increased competition has re¬ 
duced prices in the regular stores, until there isn’t so 
much difference as formerly. 
X t t 
The Fruit Growers’ Union is regularly incorporated 
under the laws of New Jersey. The Certificate of 
Association is such a model of conciseness and clear¬ 
ness, that we reproduce it entire. It may well be 
taken as a pattern by those contemplating the organi¬ 
zation of similar societies : 
Fiust. —The name of this Society shall be, “ The Fruit Growers’ 
Union and Co-operative Society, (Limited).” 
Second. —The place of business and principal office shall be 
located in the town of Hammonton, N. J. 
Third. —The objects of this Society shall be to arrange the 
methods for shipping and selling fruit and other products of the' 
soil, and to protect the interests of shippers. To conduct a store 
for the sale of general merchandise, to its members and others.. 
To purchase and hold such real estate as may be needed to con¬ 
duct its business, and to sell any portion of the same, when in 
the opinion of its officers, such sale is desirable. 
Fourth. —The Capital Stock of the Society shall be Fifty Thou¬ 
sand Dollars ($50,000), which shall be divided into Ten Thousand 
Shares of the Par value of Five dollars each. Stock may be issued 
to members in payment of any dividend made from profits accruing 
from shipments or sales of fruit or produce; each share so issued,, 
must be paid up, but fractional sums of such dividend may be 
made up to a full share by the member to whom it is due, may be 
credited to his account, or may be paid to him in cash at the 
option of the officers of the Society. Shares may also be sold for 
cash at their par value, whenever the officers may deem it ex¬ 
pedient, but the par value of such shares must be paid when thus 
sold. Tue number of shares issued at the date of this certificate 
is Twenty Three Hundred and Eighty, which are fully paid up, 
making the capital on hand Eleven Thousand and Nine Hundred 
dollars ($11,900). 
Fifth.— Any person satisfactory to the officers, may become a 
member by paying an entrance fee of one dollar, subscribing for 
one or more shares of stock, and agreeing to the provisions of 
this certificate and the By-laws of the Society, but no member 
shall hold office or be entitled to vote at any election, who has not- 
at least one paid-up share of stock. 
Sixth.— Annual interest at the rate of six per centum shall be 
paid to share holders, and a sum equal to five per cent of the net 
profits shall be set aside annually for a contingent fund and 
safely invested by the Board of Directors. The balance of the pro¬ 
fits of the Society shall be computed at the end of each year by the 
Board of Directors and a dividend declared and paid to members 
and purchasers, of such portion of said profits as such Board, 
may deem consistent with the interests and safety of the Society, 
Provided, that purchasers who are not members shall receive 
one-half the rate of dividend paid to members. Profits derived 
from the bale of merchandise may be paid in goods or in cash, as- 
the Board of Directors may determine. 
Seventh.— This certificate may be amended at any time by the 
Board of Directors, in the following manner: Such changes as 
are desired shall be reduced to writing and submitted to a regu¬ 
lar or special meeting of the members of the Society, when if 
approved by a majority of members present, such amendment 
may be deemed a part of this certificate and shall be acknowl¬ 
edged, and recorded in the same manner as is required by law 
for the original certificate. 
X X t 
The by-laws provide that the officers shall consist 
of a president, eight directors, and an auditing com¬ 
mittee of three to be elected annually by ballot. The 
society may acquire and hold such real and personal 
property as its purposes require, not to exceed $25,000. 
Provision is made for the transaction of business with 
members, and the transfer of stock. Six per cent 
annually is paid on all shares of stock at the begin¬ 
ning of each financial year. The society makes a 
strong point in protecting its members in their sales 
of produce to commissionmen. Before a merchant 
can secure consignments, his reliability must be 
established. Then these commission merchants are 
required to pay into the treasury of the society a cer¬ 
tain percentage on all sales made for members. Lists 
of all merchants approved by the directors are fur¬ 
nished to members annually. Any member shipping 
to a firm not on these lists, except it be in a city 
where the society does no business, shall forfeit $1 
for each offense. 
X t t 
The last annual report shows cash received during 
the year, $10(5,199 19, and cash paid out, $105,916.61. 
In the store, $52,707.78 worth of goods were sold dur¬ 
ing the year, and a stock of goods worth about $12,000 
is carried. The number of members at the time of 
the last report was 624, and the number of shares 
issued 4,978, The quantity of fruit shipped for last 
year, was as follows: Strawberries, 213 857 quarts ; 
raspberries, 220,000 quarts ; blackberries, 1,401,027 
quarts ; peaches, 4,482 baskets ; pears, 260 barrels ; 
grapes, 2,128 pounds ; apples, 60 barrels. There are 
two other associations in Hammonton, one an Italian 
organization, as many of these people are engaged in 
the culture of fruit in this locality. F. H. v. 
WHAT IS " A BUSHEL CRATE ” ? 
DIFFERENT STANDARDS IN DIFFERENT SECTIONS. 
In western New York and, I presume, elsewhere, bushel crates 
are quite generally used by farmers in selling potatoes, apples, 
onions, etc., from their wagons. These crates are supposed to 
be made of such dimensions that one can be set atop of another 
without bruising the contents of the under one. A bushel crate, 
then, ought to hold a bushel. As a matter of fact, however, the 
dimensions and capacities of the crates that have come under 
my observation vary considerably from each other and from 
those set down in books. Here are a few sam pies: No. 1—length, 
18 inches; width, 12 inches; height, 11 inches, all inside measure¬ 
ments; capacity, 2,376 cubic inches. No. 2—length, 18% inches; 
width, 11% inches; height, 11% inches; capacity, 2,478.5 cubic 
inches. No. 3—length, 18*4 inches; width, 12% inches; height, 
11% inches; capacity, 2,549.5 cubic inches. According to an 
authority at hand, the Winchester bushel, which is in general use 
in the United States, contains 2,150.4 cubic inches. This is for 
the measurement of grain. My authority adds that roots and 
some other articles are measured by the heaped bushel of the 
capacity of 2,747.7 cubic inches, or a little more than five pecks, 
stricken measure. It will be seen how much this exceeds even 
the largest of my three crates. But, then, I can put 60 pounds of 
It. N.-Y. No. 2 potatoes into my No. 2 crate by shaking them down 
well. What is a bushel crate, anyway ? r. j. f. 
Western Pennsylvania Boxes. 
Most of the market gardeners here use bushel 
baskets which vary in size and shape about as much 
as the parties that make them. They are made in 
remote parts of the county and sold to the gardeners 
and grocerymen. They cannot be set on top of each 
other, but are separated by dividers in the wagon 
bed. Others use boxes 12% x 13% x 16 inches, holding 
2,700 cubic inches inside measurement; these are 
supposed to hold a bushel without being filled full 
enough for the contents to get bruised when the 
baskets are placed on top of each other. Almost all 
our fruit packages vary in size and shape, and it is 
the exception when you find two factories in the same 
neighborhood making the same sized berry basket ; 
I believe it is the same with almost all other packages. 
Beaver County, Pa. w. A. f. 
Some Crates in Indiana. 
I use bushel crates of the following dimensions : 
18 x 15 x 11 inches. The end boards are %-inch thick, 
II inches wide and 15 inches long. Slats for side and 
bottoms are each three inches wide, 18 inches long 
and %-inch thick. Three of these slats are used for 
each side, the top and bottom ones coming flush with 
the top and bottom of the end boards. For the bot¬ 
tom, there are four slats, the two outside ones coming 
flush with the outside of the bottom side slats, to 
which they are nailed. This makes a square, tight 
joint the whole length on the bottom of each side of 
the crate, the same as an ordinary tight box, and adds 
much to the strength and durability of the crate. I 
find, also, that it pays to nail light %-inch strap iron 
around the ends of a crate, to prevent the slats from 
splitting or getting knocked off. Handles are made 
in the ends for convenience in lifting. This crate, 
without heaping, has a capacity of nearly 2,700 cubic 
inches, and when I sell by measurement, it is always 
taken for a bushel. However, we are selling less and 
less by measure as the years goby, when our products 
go to dealers, and crates with us are used mostly in 
hauling crops. In hauling potatoes, we are now 
using bags instead of crates, as they can be handled 
more easily, in loading and unloading wagons. Some 
farmers in this section use crates 21 inches long, 11 
inches deep and 13 inches wide. I have tried both, 
and prefer the measurements just given above, and I 
think this crate is the one most generally used in this 
part of the country. w. w. stevens. 
Washington County, Ind. 
Need of a Standard Package. 
I am convinced that what the fruit growers of this 
State need above anything else is a standard package. 
I received a call from a manufacturer a short time 
since, whose chief argument to sell goods was the 
claim that his quarts were smaller than others, while 
appearing just as large, and charging 75 cents per M 
more for the small ones. The common practice 
among commission merchants now, is to sell grapes 
by the case. The effort of the manufacturer is to 
make a small crate look large, while the grower often 
tries to deceive by filling the lower tier of baskets or 
tills slack. Dealers all have discovered this trick, 
and now make a price commensurate with the goods 
in the slackest crate ; this fixes the market rate, and 
the honest shipper can get no more for his full crate 
or regular quart. Can you not bring this subject 
before your readers and arouse their interest enough 
to compel our representatives at Albany to give us 
some relief from this growing evil ? j a s. 
Marlborough, N. Y. 
Measurements tor Northern Pennsylvania. 
The following table gives the dimensions and ca¬ 
pacity of the various crates offered for sale in the 
markets near here. Many make their own crates, 
using the dimensions of some of these : 
No. 1.—13% x 12% x 15*4 inches.2,644 cubic inches. 
No. 2.—12‘/ a x 13 x 16% inches.2,701 cubic inches. 
No. 3.—12 x 13 x 17% inches.2,671 cubic inches. 
No. 4.—12% x 13 x 17% inches.2,774 cubic inches. 
No. 4 is the one in general use iu this immediate 
vicinity. I weighed an empty one, then emptied an¬ 
other into it, and found that, level full without any 
shaking, it contained not quite 60 pounds of potatoes. 
A slight shaking settled them so that it held 60 
pounds, and would allow another to be placed upon 
it without bruising the potatoes. No. 4 is accepted 
as a bushel wherever it is used, so far as I know. I 
have not weighed the different varieties of potatoes 
to ascertain whether there is any difference in the 
specific gravity of the various kinds. While consider¬ 
ably more than 60 pounds can be put in crate No. 4, 
if vigorously shaken, I think it is none too large, 
while those described by R,. J. F. are decidedly too 
small for use where one expects 60 pounds for a bushel. 
Bradford County, Pa. g a. parcell. 
“A Peach Basket” in Maryland. 
The bushel crate, as used in this immediate section, 
a few years back, for shipping peaches and summer 
apples mainly, was made of slats one-quarter inch 
thick, three or four inches wide, and 23 inches in 
length, nailed to “heads” one-half inch thick, eight 
inches wide, and 14 inches in length, with a third 
piece same dimensions of the “ heads ” or ends, used 
as a division in the middle of the crate, to give it 
strength for handling, and piling one crate on top of 
another. When crates were in general use here, 
every shipper was a law unto himself as to size, 
some using heads only six inches wide, others seven 
inches, etc. The peach basket has superseded the 
crate, but these, too, vary more or less in size. Pota¬ 
toes are usually sold by the barrel, which are fairly 
uniform in size if used for potatoes ; but apples some¬ 
times apparently have a shrinking influence on barrels. 
When we buy seed potatoes in the spring from city 
seedsmen or commissionmen, weight determines the 
bushel. When potatoes, fruit, etc., are sold out of 
wagons in local markets, it is generally by the basket 
—a peach basket—and buyers, as a rule, are fully 
satisfied with this practice. j. w. kerb. 
Maryland. 
BUSINESS BITS. 
The address of the Empire State Pulley and Press Co. is Fulton 
N. Y., and not Sutton, as appeared in Business Bits last week, by 
error. The company manufacture cider presses. 
The Rife hydraulic engine will make water pump itself. The 
force of a falling stream may be utilized to lift the water so that 
it may be used for irrigating or other purposes. This engine 
requires no fuel or belting. Send to the Power Specialty Co., 126 
Liberty Street, N. Y., for full information. 
After all that has been said in The R. N.-Y. of late about the 
need of lime to sweeten sour soils, some readers may be glad to 
know that the White Rock Lime and Cement Co., McAfee Valley, 
N. J., is prepared to supply it. This is an especially good house, 
and orders sent there are sure to receive careful attention. 
Geo. Eutel Co., Quincy, Ill., want readers of The R. N.-Y. to 
know that they are the manufacturers of the Victor hay press. If 
you are interested, send for descriptions, and they will tell you 
all about it and tell you in what points it excels others. We only 
want to say that Mr. Ertel has been in this business for many 
years, and has the facilities and experience that enable him to 
meet all demands in the hay press industry. 
In a grain drill, it is quite important to avoid “skips” and 
“ bunches ”; in other words, to have the drill so regulated that it 
will distribute the grain evenly, and not deliver large quantities 
in some places and none at all in other places. This defect of 
many drills is avoided in the Buckeye grain drill by a new force 
feed device, which is extremely simple in construction and op. ra¬ 
tion. It simply increases or decreases the speed of the feed roll, 
as is required for the different kinds of grain, instead of enlarg¬ 
ing or decreasing the feed apertures as is the usual custon. This 
drill is made by P. P. Mast & Co., 9 Canal Street, Springfield, O. 
