246 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
port we have received from San Francisco, a city on a peninsula, and built 
with great rapidity, and without a knowledge of the probable magni- 
tude it might reach, Our correspondent’s letter is given at length, as 
much because it Ulustrates the evils that exist in a form less aggravated 
in other cities, as because of the clearness of his statement : 
San Francisco is situated on the end of a, peninsula, mnch of which, especially that 
part near the city, is unfit for cultivation. The fertile plain of Alameda ts only five 
niles distant, on the eastern side of the bay, but the farmers seldom take their wagons 
across in the ferry-boats, and the consumers get nearly all their figiit, and a large part 
of their vegetables, from middle men, 
Living in San Francisco iy dear, and all the commissions and profits are high. The 
conuuission merchants who receive butter, cheese, egys, fruits, and vegetables from the 
cy 9a ip considerable quantities, aud sell again in large quantities, with very little 
andling, charge tive to eight per cent. There are jobbers who purchase such articles 
‘in balk from the producer, and make ten to twenty per cent. profit. They must 
have pay for the risks they ineur, the capital they invest, the time they spend in exam- 
ining the merchandise, aud the labor they devote to assorting and taking care of it. 
The producers who send their produce te commission merchants get more on the aver- 
age by ten to fifteen per cent. than those who. sell to wholesale dealers, but they also 
dneur risks, for the commission merchant will not incar much troable to prevent per- 
ishable articles from spoiling, and will pot spend anything in forcing them on the 
Market, Fruit, after re-assorting and repacking, can often be sold fer twice as much as 
it could be without; but the commission merchant will not do. the work, because bis 
principal would object to the expense. Ln the packing of all kinds of fresh fruit there 
is need of improvement. The grapes from certain vineyards, pears and apples from 
certain orchards, simply because of better selection and packing, bring 25 to 50 per 
Cent., aud in some cases 100 per cent., more than others that were equally good when 
ou the trees or vines. 
The retailers of fruit, fe peg cary butter, cheese, and eggs generally purchase of com- 
Mission merchants, and sell at 25 to 100 per cent. advance. The more perishable the 
article, the higher the profit on good lots, to compensate for losses on bad lots. On 
kitchen vegetables, sold in small lots, grapes, berries, and very soft kinds of fruits, the 
profit is 100 per cent. On fresh butter the retailers generally make 10 cents per pound. 
Most of the gardeners near San Francisco are Italians, who bring in their vegetables 
every night in two-horse spring-wagons, with loads piled up four to six feet abeve the 
top of the wagon-bed, and kept in place by ropes or canvas. The sales commence 
about tiveo’clock, and at eight the wagons have disappeared, and the street is closed 
up. The stewards of hotels and large boarding-houses, the retail-market men, and 
many of the poorer class of housekeepers, purchase at these wagons, where they get 
their vegetables cheaper than in the market-bouses. Those gardeners who are not 
Italians usually send their produce to commission men, who charge 8 per cent, com- 
Mission. 
Beef and mutton are farnished to the San Francisco market. chiefly by a fow butch- 
ers, who own considerable areas of pasture land near the city, and buy up great num- 
bers of cattle. They agree on the prices to be charged for beef, and before the com- 
letion of the Pacific Railroad small dealers accepted their prices, but the markets 
ave been affected by the receipts of beef slaughtered in Wyoming Territory and 
shipped in a frozen eoudition in refrigerator cars to San Francisco, where it is sold at 
8 to LU cents per pound, when the California beef would otherwise sell for 12 er 15 
cents. The Wyoming beef is tender and jnicy, but does not keeplong. The game and 
poultry are sent to agents, who charge 5 to. 8 per cent. commission, and sell without 
delay to the retailer, seldom moving the articles from the wharf where they are landed 
previous to.sale. The retailers usually make 25 to 50 percent. profit. 
There is no fixed rule for the protits of retailers of fresh provisions ; they depend on 
thé conditions of the merchandise, the amount of the stock, and the urgency of the ° 
demand. A hot day, which hastens fermentation or putrefaction, a heavy rain, which 
ee honsekéepers from going out, an unexpected arrival of a large lot of fruit or 
eef, the detention of a train or steamer with an expected supply, may cause a rise or 
fall of 20 to 40 per cent. in prices. The general rates of profits of middle-men in Sau 
Fraucisco may be summarily stated thus: Nearly all the fruit, dairy produce, game, 
py. and a considerable part of the vegetables sold in the city pass through the 
auds of commission merchants, who charge 5 to 8 per cent. commission. phi 
Some of these articles are bought from producers by jobbers, who make 10 to 20 per 
cent. profit. The retailers buy their fruit and dairy produce of commission merchants 
or jobbers, and charge 20 to 30 per cent. profit on butter, cheese, and eggs ; 25 to 40 on 
apples and bard pears, and 40 to L00 on peaches, soft pears, apricots, grapes, berries, doc. 
The green vegetables they buy generally of the producers, and sell at an advance of 
100 per cent, ; ; 
