172 MODERN FRUIT MARKETING 



(2) There is no check on charges or prices. (3) The 

 producer has no opportunity to know or understand 

 the market conditions. The first one need not be com- 

 mented on particularly. But it is necessary that the 

 grower use his best business judgment in getting a re- 

 liable and honest house, and it is due to the unscrupulous 

 commission men that so much vengeance has been de- 

 clared against them. 



The lack of check on charges and prices is a situation 

 which no good reliable business firm would tolerate. It 

 would be out of the question to ask a buyer of a box 

 of fruit to give a receipt for the amount of money paid 

 and these to be forwarded to the man who had the fruit 

 for sale, but yet again in the larger exchanges this is 

 exactly what is done. Commission houses would prob- 

 ably refuse to do this and it would entail considerable 

 bookkeeping and, in many ways, would be impractical 

 from the standpoint of the consumer, and so the custom 

 has been to accept the statements of the commission men 

 and ask for no receipts whereby to prove the correctness. 

 The last, in the producer failing to know the market 

 conditions, is a question of education and one which is 

 vital to the industry of the fruit in general. No longer 

 is it possible to grow fruit and get good results without 

 also knowing of the conditions in which the fruit is sold 

 and used, and the producer who patronizes the commis- 

 sion men who does not have the opportunities to get in- 

 formation of these conditions has little chance to improve 

 himself and become a progressive grower. This, in the 

 opinion of many of the more successful orchardists, is 

 the greatest objection to the prevailing method of com- 

 mission houses. 



