Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-08-09

The following valuable contribu-
ton upon the shipment and market
ing Of truck products was read by A.
r. Sprague of San Benito at The
Farmers Congress at College Station
last week:
Producers should cooperate:
First-To secure uniformity good
quality. and wholesale rates, in buy
ing seed, packing crates, and other
things necessary for their protec-
ton, and to promote their business.
Third-To secure proper grading
and packing for their products
which must be assembled for ship
ments in car lots.
Fourth-In order that there may
be fewer competing shippers in the
markets and TO c a business
like conduct of shipment, sale and
settlement for their produce, a SER
vice which they could not well per-
form each for himself being engaged
in the quite absorbing work of grow
ing the produce.
Fifth-All competing cooperative
association, and all competing ship
pers, should cooperate to the extent
necessary to secure organized con
troll of their car lot distribution.
Doubtless all but two of these
propositions will be accepted with
out challenge, because they are so
self-evident. Cooperation is nee
essary in order to secure enough
volume from the daily picking to
furnish car lots, since in no other
way can the product be so safely
and profitably marketed.
Since several must load into the
same car, which by the custom and
convenience for the trade, must be
sold as a whole, it is clearly nee
essary that there should be coOpera-
ton to secure such grading and
packing of the product as will es-
tablish justice between the shippers.
Otherwise some will pack better
than others, some will have a better
product and a better pack, and yet
the car will sell upon the value Of
the poorer grade rather than upon
the best; a grave injustice to the
careful grower and packer. Lam no
pessimist in morals, and | believe
that most men are honest enough to
pack honestly, but certainly some
are not, and temptation should be
held from the morally weak.
Then, too, hardly any one will 50
readily discover faults in his own
pack, as he will in that of his
neighbors. Moreover, with so many
minds there will be many notions OF
J what the standard grades really are,
so that by the custom Of packing in
dividually, where several must COM
bine for the car load, no uniform
grades can be maintained, and
hence, no just basis of cooperation
can be secured. Therefore, it is
necessary that producers should CO.
operate to secure and maintain uni
form grades in shipment. This alb
solutely requires packing sheds with
efficient superintendent Of packing
and inspection. Even in the case of
cabbage shipped in bulk, the grower
should unload into number 1 or
number . bins of the warehouse, ac-
cording to his cabbage grades. II
carefully selected in the field, not
many off grades will be turned back
to him, and so much field selection
Will be to his advantage. Where
Grated at the packing shed, careful
field selection while not so absolute
ly necessary, will be found advan-
tageous.
Cooperation is most necessary for
the proper distribution Of quickly
~perishable products. | must ask
your attention to what, in my judg-
ment. is not proper distribution, and
what is. There is now no regular
distribution Of any truck or fruit
products grown east of the Rocky
Mountains And yet without this,
cooperation is gravely defective. So
long as wen two or three large ship
pers or shipping organizations in
competing territory. are sending out
! cars with no knowledge of the desti-
nations Of competing cars. which, of
course, they can not have. they are,
with every car. simply betting on
the market on the chance of the car
getting to a market not glutted with
the same product. For his informa-
ton when he ships may be ever 50
accurate, it is ~valueless as indicat-
ing the probable condition of the
same when the car shall have ar