SlS AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



There are few points connected with the marketing of fruit and 

 produce that equal in importance the matter of expense. It is there- 

 fore well to remember that the auction system of selling enables the 

 grower to get prompt returns from the auction companies at a lower 

 selling expense than by any other system. 



The auction can relieve a glutted market as no other medium can. 

 Just as soon as the market sags, the representatives of the peddlers 

 and the push-cart men at the auction buy heavily. With all the push- 

 carts and peddlers' wagons featuring a commodity, many not handling 

 anything else for the time being, vast quantities of fruit can be dis- 

 posed of in case of a glut. The result is that consumption is greatly 

 increased. The glut relieved, prices rebound and the market becomes 

 normal. 



The public sales system has a particular advantage over private 

 selling in that, the glut having been relieved; the stimulated rate of 

 consumption sends prices upward at once. It is quickly apparent 

 that a number of buyers want a certain kind of fruit. No buyer can 

 hide the fact. He must bid briskly and bid high if he is to get the 

 fruit that his customers want. 



There are too many racial differences and too many varying 

 interests involved to enable the buyers to form a combine in the 

 auction market. There are Greeks, Hebrews, Irishmen, Germans, 

 Italians, and Americans, both large and small buyers, at every public 

 sale. The auction companies have made combinations impossible by 

 forbidding one buyer to bid for any other who is present at the sales. 

 Buyers who cannot be present at a sale are represented by brokers 

 whose business it is to buy at auction sales. 



The volume of certain lines of the. fruit and vegetable industry has 

 grown to such proportions that it has become absolutely necessary for 

 the grower to adopt the auction system of selling. There is a point 

 at which the system of private selling breaks down simply because the 

 machinery of the system is not adequate. That point is reached 

 where the distribution has not sufficiently kept up with the production. 

 When the production of a particular commodity is large, in order to 

 secure the best results for the grower, there must be a concentration 

 at one place of both the commodity and the buyer, a minimum number 

 of movements, minimum expense, and speed in delivery. When there 

 is such concentration and the commodity is standardized, there is no 

 question but that the auction system is the most efficient method of 

 disposing of the product. 



