REPORT OF STATE HORTICULTURIST. 85 



Question : Can you tell us how they sell apples in Liver- 

 pool ? 



Mr. Conant : I will hit upon some of the points, but I do 

 not want to take up too much time. 



Of course, at first, these apples are all landed from the 

 steamer upon the dock and sent to the basement of the auction 

 rooms. There they are all examined by auctioneer buyers, who 

 come down there and open every man's apples that they want to, 

 and examine them as deeply as they like, and each man's lot 

 is catalogued in a book, stating how many he has and in what 

 condition they are found. 



The auction room will hold four hundred men and these 

 buyers are licensed buyers. Perhaps you might think that this 

 is wrong, but I will show you that it is all right and proper. 

 Suppose that any man could go in there and buy from lOO to 

 1,000 barrels. The auctioneer doesn't know whether or not 

 he is able to pay for one barrel or one hundred. But they do 

 not do this way for they have to know the standing of every 

 buyer, and the next day he has to pay for all that he sells. 

 So you see it is all fair and proper that each man be a licensed 

 buyer. 



These apples, after being examined, are taken up from the 

 basement on an elevator, and the minute they come through 

 the floor they are auctioned ofif. They have six bookkeepers 

 to keep account of the sales. Everything is done quickly. A 

 man has to be used to it because the auctioneer talks so fast. 



These apples come up with head out — in two oblong baskets 

 large enough to show the greater part of the apples. As soon 

 as they are sold, they are sent back down, and more will come 

 up on another elevator at the same time. They are all sold in 

 twenty-barrel lots, and a man must bid on 20 barrels, but he 

 can take one, two or three lots. If a man says he will take 

 three lots, and another bids on four, at the same price, the bid 

 goes to the man bidding for the greater amount. 



And that is generally the w^ay all apples are sold. 



MAINE fruit growers' EXCHANGE. 



After a conference with several of the representatives of 

 the different fruit growers' organizations in the state, it was 

 deemed advisable to call a meeting to find out if the time was 



