STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 1 27 



You may send them to him and say, "Put them in storage for 

 me. I will notify you when I want them sold." He acts as 

 your agent at a regular commission and sells them at your 

 direction, you taking all the risk. 



Question: Who handles the contract for the storage? 



Mr. Orcutt: Most of the large commission houses have 

 regular storage place contracts, because it is very obvious a cold 

 storage company cannot afford to sell space for fifty or a 

 hundred barrels as cheaply as he can for ten or twenty thousand 

 barrels. The commission man acts as broker, according to your 

 contract with him. 



Question : It is hardly advisable to send to a commission man 

 to get storage for a small lot — it would be better to consign, 

 wouldn't it? 



Mr. Orcutt : Well, I don't know. The small lot man has 

 a hard job to sell his produce. The different farmers from 

 this state and other states write in like this — I will quote you 

 as an example a man who writes in to me and says, "I shipped 

 in 65 barrels of apples to so and so, and I got returns $1.37, 

 and I see in the New England Homestead they have been sell- 

 ing for $2.10. Now who has got away with all that money in 

 between?" Well, now, let us see. I find he has shipped three 

 kinds, two different grades — really six kinds of apples. The 

 majority who send in apples do it in this way. They get hold 

 of some of the trade papers and they find a list of commission 

 men. Generally the commission men listed in those papers are 

 good first-class commission men. They pick out one, we will 

 say. They must have some money about the first of January, 

 so they get those apples together, pick them out, ship them and 

 write, "I send you 65 barrels of apples. Want to get the highest 

 market price by return mail." The commission man gets the 

 letter and about the same time he gets a telephone message 

 that the apples are in the station, and some of the help in the 

 place have them carted over, and they don't know what kinds 

 they are. They have to send a man to open every barrel to see 

 what kind they are. They may ask $2.50 a barrel. Somebody 

 comes along and says, "I will give you $1.50." They say, "All 

 right, take them." They deduct their charges for carting and 

 add a good lot for doing this work and return the farmer $1.17, 



