ONION SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION. 



85 



At these rates the grower simply dehvers to the storage and, as noted 

 above, all subsequent charges including insurance are borne by the storage 

 man. 



Onions are put into storage during Septeml^er and October, and are 

 generally sold before March; indeed, in order to avoid excessive loss by 

 shrinkage, a good many are sold before Christmas. 



Hired storage holdings may be shipped directly by the growers, but 

 very frequently they are sold to or through the local dealer. When a 

 dealer buys onions out of storage he pays for the number of bushels they 

 will screen, which means, of course, that the grower has to bear the loss 

 due to shrinkage. On the other hand, the storage charges are figured 

 on the basis of the number of bushels delivered to the storage, and no 

 account is taken of the length of the storage period. 



Storage by Local Corporations or Dealers. 

 There are about thirty storages in the Connecticut Valley; including 

 two built in 1915, they have a total capacity of approximately 600,000 

 bushels. They are fairly well distributed throughout the valley, as shown 

 by the accompanying map. With the exception of Whately, each town 

 has at least three storages. In 1915 the number of commercial and private 

 storages, together with their joint capacity in each town, was as follows: — 



Town. 



Storages. 



Com- 

 mercial. 



Farm. 



Capacity 

 (Bushels). 



Amherst, . 

 Hadley, . 

 Deerfield, 

 Hatfield, . 

 Sunderland, 

 Totals, 



20 



32,400 

 119,500 

 139,000 

 158,500 

 142,000 



591,400 



With the exception of a few storages owned by local storage corporations 

 all the warehouses are located on farms some distance from the railroad. 

 In the case of the principal storages, however, this distance does not 

 exceed 2\ miles. 



Storage Men. 



With the growth of the onion industry in the Connecticut Valley the 

 storage men developed in a very natural way. At first they were large 

 growers who held their onions for better prices. Very soon, however, they 

 also bought the product of others and held it. With larger quantities 

 in their possession and a better knowledge of markets and marketing 

 machinery, speculation and storing became their regular business. 



Even to-day there are few exclusively storage men; they are at the same 

 time growers and dealers. They raise onions on their own farms, buy 



