Part II.] FEDERAL OFFICE OF MARKETS. 121 



those lines is going to be of a great deal of benefit, but you 

 must remember that the supplies of the various fruits and 

 vegetables come into a market in many different ways, and it's 

 hard to get an exact estimate of how much of any commodity is 

 there and how much has been brought in by farmers' wagons on 

 the way into the market, when they are arriving on the market 

 all the way from 8 o'clock in the evening until 5 o'clock the next 

 morning in the way of local produce, and in carloads by express 

 and by local freight. Then, when you come to go over the 

 records of the various companies — transportation companies — 

 that bring in these products, and endeavor to find out how 

 much of the various commodities have been brought in, it is a 

 problem which is exceedingly difficult to get at, but we hope in 

 time to be able to discover the solution, and to at least make 

 estimates. We hope to be able to arrive at some idea of what 

 the various markets can normally consume, but then there are 

 so many other things that enter into that problem. For instance, 

 cabbage is exceedingly high, as you all know, and cauliflower is 

 coming in splendid quantities and in splendid quality into the 

 Boston market at the present time, and the receivers of cauli- 

 flower tell me that they are selling five and six times as much 

 cauliflower as they have ever sold before, because cabbage is so 

 high; that is, the price of cabbage has gone up until it is on a 

 level with cauliflower, if not above it in some cases, so that 

 people now, rather than pay 8 and 10 cents a pound for cab- 

 bage, will pay 15 and 20 cents a head for very nice cauliflower, 

 because it is a similar product with a little finer flavor, and they 

 are selling tremendous amounts of cauliflower on the Boston 

 market. The influence that one crop has on another is some- 

 thing that must be taken into consideration in the study of 

 what a market will normally consume. 



Following Mr. Gilbert's address. Dr. A. E. Cance of the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College spoke on " The Functions of 

 a State Bureau of Markets." 



