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In, the auction room the various lots, each ;vith its number, are arranged ir. 

 piles, and prospective buyers have an opportunity to make a careful inspection 

 before the auction begins, generally at 10 or 11 A.I.;. There is some semblance of 

 ^■•'rading although it is more a matter of sorting according to size or color than 

 of rigidly observed grades. The auction manager may refuse to accept any lot 

 considered unsalable. 



The sale is conducted in another room v/ith seats for buyers arranged as in an 

 amphitheater. On the opposite vrall there is a device resembling a roulette vrheel, 

 with numbers ranging up to 100, an indicator, and in the center a stationary board 

 vath numbered lights, the numbers corresponding to those on pushbuttons at each 

 buyer's seat. 



Selling proceeds as follo\vs: The auctioneer seated by the wheel identifies 

 the first lot, and announces its nuir.ber. He then g:'ves the v;heel a spin starting 

 with the indicator at the highest number likely to be bid. For example, suppose a 

 lot of plums is up for sale and they are worth about 80 Pfennigs per unit. The 

 indicator starts at 100 and moves dovmv/ard slowly. At the instant the indicator 

 reaches a figure which any one of the buyers is willing to pay, he iinraediately 

 pushes his button and the light flashes at his number on the board. There is no 

 talking except the original announcement of the auctioneer and his statement as t^ 

 the number of the buyer and the price bid. By starting high and allovd.ng the 

 indicator to move to a lovrer figure every buyer is on the alert and if a buyer 

 loses out on several lets because someone else pushed his button first, he vfill 

 make sure that he gets the next lot by "raising the ante" and pushing his button 

 a little sooner. ■ 



In one auction I saw 170 lots of fruit sold in one hour, and when the sale 

 was ever, each buyer found the slips for his purchases in a neat pile where they 

 had been arranged by the auctioneer's assistant. There had been no waving of hands 

 and no shouting, only a careful scanning of lot designations and a spirited pushing 

 of buttons. All fruit must be claimed promptly and moved off the floor to make 

 room for the lots to be sold the next day. 



As I watched this type of auction I naturally wondered how it Vv'ould work in 

 '.he United States. Llaybe it's worth a trial. 



In the next issue the grcv/ing of cherries in Germany y,111 be discussed. Ar. 

 article written in Genaarl-^by a fruit instructor near Koblenz, has been translated 

 •"or use in FRUIT IIOTES. 



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Chemical Thinning cf Apples and Peaches The 195^ suggecati'-ns of the 

 Department of Pomclogy, University of liassachusetts, Amherst, concerning 

 the use of dinitrcs and hormones for the chemical thinning of fruit trees 

 are nov; available to grovrers and may be had by contacting your County 

 Agricultural Agent or by writing directly to the Department at Amherst. 



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