'pfe (anadian "Horticoltorist 



SEPTEMBER, 1904 



Volume XXVII 



Number 9 



THE IRRESPONSIBLE BUYER 



ONE of the greatest evils from which 

 the Canadian fruit industry suffers 

 is the irresponsiMe buyer. Every year 

 Canadian fruit growers are defrauded out 

 of tens of thousands of dollars by sharpers 

 who deliberately and carefully lay their 

 plans to fleece such fruit growers as will 

 trust them with the disposal of their crops. 

 As the season is now approaching when 

 these buyers will begin their operations, a 

 description of their methods may serve as a 

 warning to trusting growers. 



The buyers referred to are usually well 

 supplied with money by old country firms 

 through a well known and apparently re- 

 liable commission dealer on this side, who 

 often is at the back pi the whole scheme. 

 In most cases this dealer never places more 

 than on^e buyer in each district the same 

 season. The first "year one of these buyers 

 operates in a locality he proceeds to make 

 himsdf " hail fellow well met " with as 

 many growers as possible. A pretense is 

 made by him of buying a large quantity of 

 apples. For those he buys he generally 

 pays cash, thus establishing his reputation 

 with the growers as a man of means and 

 integrity. Were his operations to be in- 

 vestigated, however, it would generally be 

 found that his total purchases did not ex- 

 ceed 4,000 or 5,000 barrels. In some 

 counties these tactics are continued a second 

 year, but this seldom occurs. 



As a general rule a buyer of this kind the 



second year quietly sets to work and con- 

 tracts for as many barrels of apples as he 

 can secure, 20,000 to 30,000 , often being 

 purchased. Operations are conducted so 

 quietly few of the growers have any inkling 

 of'the extent of his purchases. If some of 

 the growers are sharp and shrewd the 

 buyer, when necessary, keeps them quiet by 

 paying them 50 to 70 per cent, of the value 

 of their crops and thus avoids suspicion.' 

 ■Whenever possible, however, the growers 

 are put off with one excuse or another, until 

 after their crops have been shipped. 



A favorite excuse of the buyer for the 

 delay in the making of payments is that he 

 has just made a heavy payment for a large 

 shipment, or that he is waiting for a remit- 

 tance from the head office. Once he has 

 secured the fruit and shipped it out of the 

 neighborhood his purpose is accomplished. 

 Later he goes back to the growers with tales 

 of losses, claiming the fruit was injured in 

 transit, that the market was glutted when the 

 fruit arrived, etc. Finally he offers to set- 

 tle at 20 to 50 cents on the dollar. 



Not until then do the growers reaUze how 

 they have been duped, and unfortunately 

 for them they have no redress. For the 

 first time they awaken to the fact that the 

 buyer, in spite of his great pretenses, has 

 no property or stake in the section by means 

 of which they can obtain any recompense 

 for the value of their crops. What makes it 

 easier for these buvers t® conduct their 



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