ANNUAL REPORT, 1932 7 



is one of the outstanding features of the changes taking place in distribution. 

 This is characteristic of no particular section of the country, and many are the 

 efforts on the part of wholesalers and regular jobbers to control or eliminate this 

 competition with their business. New England wholesalers seem not to suffer 

 greatly from one aspect of this method that is found in other sections, where 

 the traveling jobber buys directly from the grower and sells the product in the 

 market where it would otherwise have been handled by the regular trade. 



These aspects of the problem have received some attention, but all must have 

 further investigation. 



Analysis of Market Prices for Massachusetts Vegetables. (H. B. Rowe.) 

 This project, begun in 1930, includes the analysis of annual and weekly variations 

 in prices for eight leading vegetables on the Boston market: asparagus, cabbage, 

 carrots, celery, cucumbers, spinach, squash, and tomatoes. Daily price and 

 supply data have been tabulated for the ten-year period 1922-1931. From 

 these data annual and weekly series have been compiled. Conventional methods 

 of price analysis have been used in isolating and measuring the most important 

 relationships explaining price variations. The study has now been practically 

 completed through these stages for each vegetable except cabbage and cucumbers, 

 on which some further analysis is required. A beginning also has been made in 

 preparing the results for publication. 



Results include the determination of fairly reliable relationships between prices, 

 supply, and seasonal variation in demand for asparagus, bunched and cut carrots, 

 Pascal and white celery, spring spinach, squash, winter and summer greenhouse 

 tomatoes, and field tomatoes. For each of these products the analysis has fur- 

 nished a very good explanation of the principal price variations which have 

 occurred during the period included in the study. Also it has been possible to 

 measure the relative importance of receipts from local farms and carlot arrivals 

 as price determinants. In general, local supplies and trend have been the most 

 important factors influencing year to year variations in prices for these products 

 during the period since 1922. Likewise, supplies from local sources and normal 

 seasonal changes account for the major price variations within the season. These 

 relationships appear to have remained practically unchanged throughout the 

 period. In the case of summer and fall spinach, results have been mostly nega- 

 tive in character, apparently due to tne wide range of quality covered by available 

 quotations. Results obtained from the project thus far contribute materially 

 to an understanding of the market situation for the vegetable-producing Industry 

 of Massachusetts, since they provide definite information regarding price move- 

 ments and their causes. Such knowledge permits a more reliable interpretation 

 of current market developments by producers as a basis for production and mar- 

 keting plans. Furthermore it gives a more dependable basis for outlook work 

 and shows the more important items which should be covered in current market 

 reports. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING 

 C. I. Gunness in Charge 



Investigation of Apple Storages. (C. I. Gunness.) A study of the effect 

 of humidity on evaporation from apples in storage at various temperatures was 

 started in the fall of 1931. Based on the first year's operation, it is apparent that 

 humidities of 70 and 75 per cent cause considerably more evaporation than a 

 humidity of 88 per cent at all temperatures. It was found, however, that the 



