REPORT OF STATE HORTICULTURIST. 53 



sold and sent to the retail distributors. Now, under the state 

 supervision, the same work is done for five per cent, which 

 shows a saving to the growers of New York State and of ad- 

 joining states, who patronize the New York State Department 

 of Foods and Markets, of twenty-five per cent in the handling 

 of their products. 



In the auction system there is absolutely no chance of fraud 

 or deception — no opportunity for crooked work of any kind 

 or description. Every sale is sworn to and the buyer's name 

 given, when requested. The state has its inspector on the 

 auction block, watching the sale alongside of the auctioneer, 

 and the results have been extremely satisfactory to the shipper. 

 Then immediately the New York State Department of Foods 

 and Markets calls in the representatives of the Press of the 

 great city, tells them the price that the goods are selling at 

 which they should sell at retail, and, as a result, we find con- 

 sumers have bought apples for the past six months in New 

 York City at thirty-five cents less than they bought apples 

 during the same six months one year previous, when there 

 was no New York State Department of Foods and Markets. 



We find that, on the four million barrels of apples packed 

 in New York State in 191 5, the producers received at least 

 $1 per barrel more than they received the year previous, when 

 there were one million barrels of apples less produced than 

 there were in 1915. 



It is easy to see that the law of supply and demand does not 

 work very well if there is a trust in the business handling the 

 product, which is extremely greedy and anxious to make all 

 the money possible for its stockholders. 



In our great city everyone approves of the city taking 

 charge of supplying its inhabitants with the best and purest 

 water possible, at the lowest possible cost, and the citv has 

 made a great success of supplying its inhabitants with water ; 

 but in the matter of foodstuffs, the city has let old, antediluvian 

 methods operate up to the present time. The auction system 

 under state supervision represents the twentieth century method 

 of marketing foodstuffs. It represents, in the handling of 

 foodstuffs, economy, efficiency and honesty. 



Think of the economy of having one of the transportation 

 companies turn over the dock, the rent, which would cost 



