126 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



SELLING APPLES. 



Success in selling apples to these people simply means having 

 some one to act as your sales agent who understands these 

 various channels and the ways in which the people live and the 

 ways the buyers operate their business. And when you do have 

 such a man he is the one that will be able to sell those apples, 

 either through a commission man, retail store, or whatever 

 seems to him the best agency to operate with over a series of 

 years. You can't be flipping back and forth from one com- 

 mission man to another, because by and by nobody cares 

 anything about your stuff. You must have somebody to rely 

 upon to push your business. Remember this one economic 

 fact — if you don't look out for your business, nobody else will. 

 You can't expect somebody else to crack it up and sell it, get 

 the best price and do it all for you. If they are doing that, it is 

 for their pocket-book and not yours. If you want to have that 

 benefit, you have got to have enough produce so as to pay for 

 having that organization. 



QUESTIONS. 



Question : I understand that the commission men will put 

 apples into cold storage for you. How do they handle the cold 

 storage ? 



Mr. Orcutt: What do you mean — "how they handle?" 



Question : Well, if I send apples to some commission man in 

 Boston, he to put them in cold storage for me and sell them when 

 the market was right, what would be the terms? 



Mr. Orcutt: Well, I suppose different dealers have diflFer- 

 ent arrangements. A great many growers simply have a com- 

 mission man act as their agent. You understand that a large 

 commission house contracts for cold storage in the fall, or two 

 or three go in together, and of course they get concessions, I 

 suppose, by taking a large space. Then many times they can 

 give concessions to the grower. It depends upon whether you 

 are selling to the commission man or whether he is acting as 

 your agent. You can handle your apples in three or four differ- 

 ent ways. You can send them to a commission man and tell 

 him to sell them as quickly as he can and return the money. 

 He offers those for sale. He may buy them himself or have 

 some friend buy them in or he may sell to some outside buyer. 



\ 



