298 HARVESTING AND MARKETING 



that the average price received for the crop will be fully as great 

 in a small market as in a large one. This is assuming that the 

 small market would be able to handle the entire product, which 

 is often not the case. The greatest objection to the small market 

 is the ease w^th which it is overstocked. The prices may not 

 drop as low as in a large market, but the goods simply cannot be 

 moved. When the product from slightly southern points becomes 

 abundant, the smaller cities to the north, which may have been 

 taking the earlier shipments at satisfactory prices, begin to be 

 supplied with home-grown stock, and when this becomes plentiful 

 the stock shipped in from other points is usually not wanted at 

 any price. The grower who has been depending upon this kind of 

 a market then suddenly finds himself confronted with the problem 

 of seeking another outlet for his goods. 



Another serious defect in the wholesale markets handling 

 goods on consignment in the smaller cities is that no premium is 

 placed upon superior goods. No. 2 and ungraded stock usually 

 bringing the same price as a strictly fancy article. There is no 

 incentive to proper grading and packing for such a market. 



The most satisfactory way of supplying vegetables to the 

 markets of the smaller cities is to arrange wdth one high-class 

 retailer in each city to handle a certain number of packages of a 

 given product each day through the shipping season. In this case 

 each shipment is usually billed out at a price set by the grower 

 rather than the dealer. In this way it is often possible to build 

 up a very satisfactory trade in high-grade products. The most 

 serious drawback to this method of marketing is the impossibility 

 of determining the number of packages that can be furnished per 

 day, and hence the necessity of limiting orders to the supply 

 that can normally be furnished. This makes it necessary to find 

 some other way of marketing part of the crop when the yields 

 are heavy. The surplus is usually consigned to some commission 

 man located in a small city other than those in which a retail 

 dealer is being supplied. 



Consigning to Large Cities. — Since transportation by express 

 is always expensive, most growers located at points where vege- 

 tables are shipped in quantity send their goods by freight to a 

 large city market rather than express them to smaller markets. 

 At each shipping point there is usually an organization of the 

 growers, which makes possible the securing of better railway rates 

 and accommodations than would be the case where the growers 



