Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-06-14

association grades the product; pools
by grades; sells the products; de6ucts
the cost of doing business; then the
balance goes to the growers proper
tionately.
There are two types of contracts
under which the cooperative aSso-
citation works. One type is the agency
contract. If you were dealing with
fresh fruits or egetableS-things on
which you had a routing prOblen-to
get-them to the market where they
were best able to be absorbed-if you
didn't have to store anything or
finance anything-you would work
with an agency contract. You make
the association your agent. Agency
contracts are the easiest things to
draw, and are perfectly simple
things, so simple that one of our gov
ernmental departments put them out
as an ideal contract for cooperative
marketing associations as agency
| agreements. Apparently that par
ticular department hasn't ever heard
Of the sale and resale type Of con-
tract, which is the type universally
used by associations. that deal in non
perishable products,
| Where you have a nonperishable
product you must finance. Where
you finance you must have the asso-
citation to get title to the properly
or it cannot give any adequate collat-
eral; 1t cannot indorse a warehouse
receipt; it cannot handle the product
as collateral. Therefore you will find
| that over eleven years ago we evolved
the so-called sale and resale contract,
in which the grower sells his product
and gives title to the association. The
association agrees to pay him his
porportionate share of the resale pro-
ceeds, less the cost of doing bust
ness.
The Grading of Prunes.
After q brief interval Mr.. Sapiro
| resumed his address:
| The key to our cooperative method
| is what you would call our pools. Let
US take the prune growers as good
example of the pooling idea.
The prunes are first of all fruits
of different types or varieties. You
can have the Italian brand, which
| possibly some of you know as the
Oregon brand. There is the French
brand. the Imperial brand, the Petite
different types. Then prunes are
sold by size, so many to the pound
20-30, 1910, 1850, 5000, 1910, 1880,
CO>P>, JU-lUU. lUO-lZU anu IZU up.
Then, in addition, prunes are sold by
quality. If it is a fine purple prune,
which has not been dried out too much
and which still is not too soft, that is
the highest grade, the "Sunsweet." If
it is dried too much, or a little too
soft or cracked or bronzed, it is not
the highest grade, but goes in an
other pool. If it is badly bronZed, or
cracked, or dried, or entirely too damp
and is likely to spoil quickly and be-
come widowed, it goes into the third
class. We make various pools of the
poor grades of prunes. by sample.
So every man delivering prunes
may deliver into ten different sized
classes and at the same time deliver
in two or three different varieties and
two or three differtnt grades. He may
have prunes in forty different pools
in a single crop. Then that same as
ISOLATION handles apricots, and he
maybe in perhaps twenty pools in
apricots. He may be in sixty pools in
the association at any one time. Now
when he delivers his fruit he gets a
grade receipt telling him how many
prunes he has sent in, the size and
the quality. That is all. He doesn't own
those prunes any more; the association
gets title.
The association mingles his prunes
together with prunes of the same
grade, type and variety; or it may
pass them separately and mingle the
proceeds. He has as interest in the
association his proportionate interest
in the proceeds. If he puts in l per
cent of the prunes in the 2030-Sun-
sweet or first grade-he gets 1 per
cent. Thus, every man in the associa-
ton gets the same as every other man
for the same type, grade, quantity and
quality of proceeds. 1t is absolute CO.
operation.
In that process, Of course, the first
problem is the problem of grading. OF
course, we have had said to us exactly
the same thing which has been said to
you tobacco men-that every mans
prunes are different from every other
mans prunes. That is absolutely true,
in a sense, just as every other mans
tobacco is different from the other fell
lows. But you see when they said
that to our people we realized that
even though there were differences,
there were some methods of grading,
for often penalties were imposed and
often premiums paid. When you come
right down to it there are always bases
for commercial classification.
The test is this: Take the Reynolds
Company which sends out more than a
hundred and twenty statesmen. How
do you suppose it instructs those sales
men? If it needed real genius to tell
the difference between grades of to-
bacco the Reynolds Company couldn't
operate because there are not one hun
bred and twenty geniuses in the whole
country. The managers instruct these
statesmen as to certain types, certain
defects, certain gradings which they
dre to follow. Grading is always from
the buyers standpoint. The buyer
always is interested in making a grow
err think he cannot grade his product.
You will find this in every product
raised under the sun-the less general
ly 1t is graded the greater advantage
to the buyer and Spectator. If you
want some interesting experiences,
speak to the Bureau of Markets about
the time it started to establish grades
in cotton. Everybody yelled, 1T can't
be DONE" OF course it was done Every
spinner knows the grade he wants and
gives his instructions accordingly.
Every buyer knows the grade by
which he buys from the grower. They
all know it even on tobacco
Do you know that the Bureau of
Markets has already sent out 81 cir
cular that grades on tobacco not Aonly
can be established, but will be eStab-
lished, and that the Bureau of Mar.
kets is right now working on the eb-