128 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



and he sees good apples quoted $2.25 and wonders who got 

 away with the money. Now then, the farmer says to me, "Why 

 doesn't the commission man pay attention to my apples ?" You 

 take a big house having thousands of different packages of com- 

 modities coming in every day, and fifty barrels is a very small 

 order — they are not going to stop their business — the heads of 

 the firm don't know they have received anything from that man 

 at all — it is simply a process of doing business in a large way 

 in which a small order is lost, and all the money is taken up in 

 various charges and costs. 



Question : Can you tell us anything about auction sales in 

 New York? Is there any disposition to have such a place in 

 Boston ? 



Mr. Orcutt: I have heard some talk of it. An auction is 

 a good way to get rid of some surplus produce, but it is not the 

 way to sell produce. You let the other fellow set your price. 



Question : Hasn't that been fairly successful ? 



Mr. Orcutt: Yes, but some of the best sellers don't sell 

 that way. If I was a large grower, or a member of a large 

 association, I should not want to use the auction a great deal ; 

 might have to. I think the auction is a necessary arrangement 

 for general business. But what I am getting at is the way to 

 sell produce. It doesn't make any difference whether you have 

 apples or fertilizer to sell, you must get your product before 

 the people in good shape, and when I sell apples I don't 

 want to come up against an auction price. I want to get my 

 apples in as good shape as possible — find out who the consumers 

 are. A small amount in an auction sale isn't going to amount 

 to anything. The produce has to be inspected and the seller 

 has to know what it is beforehand. You have 65 barrels of 

 apples of two or three kinds. They are eaten up by charges, 

 opening them up to see what they are, having them listed, etc. 

 The marketing of farm products is no different than the mar- 

 keting of other products. A farmer is a manufacturer, pure 

 and simple. He has his land from which to manufacture pro- 

 ducts. He has to use the same methods as in marketing any 

 other kind of product, adapted to the particular line of article 

 that he is producing. We fail to realize these two things, our 

 changed condition of living which we illustrated here, from 

 the old way, in which certain local producing centers had a 



