HARVESTING AND MARKETING 143 



Indianapolis was found to be selling a very low 

 grade of apples at twelve and one-half cents per 

 pound. "We found the same grade of apples on 

 sale in the commission houses of the city for 

 four dollars and fifty cents to five dollars and 

 fifty cents per barrel. There are about one 

 hundred fifty pounds of apples in a barrel. 

 Figure out for yourself what profit that re- 

 tailer was making. If this was an exceptional 

 case I would never mention it but I have inves- 

 tigated too many similar cases to think that it 

 is at all unique. 



I do not see just how the grower can influ- 

 ence the retail market to any extent. It is a 

 market with which he does not come in contact 

 as a rule, especially if he is a large grower. 

 However, if the retailers only knew it, they 

 could very greatly increase their sales by re- 

 ducing their profit and by selling fruit not in 

 small units but in large ones. The buyer usu- 

 ally is influenced by the size of the unit quoted. 

 If the housewife asks the price of apples and is 

 quoted "ten cents a pound" she will probably 

 place her order on a pound basis. On the other 

 hand if the quotation is made in fractions of a 

 bushel the chances are that the grocer would 

 sell many times the amount of fruit that he will 

 dispose of on the first basis. 



The grower, as such, is interested always in 

 the wholesale prices. He is interested in any- 



