280 HORTICULTURE FOR SCHOOLS 



(2) He sees to it that transportation is supplied for delivering 

 the fruit to the retail stores. This calls for a well-developed 

 delivery system in the large cities, for the retail stores buy 

 frequently and in small quantities. (3) The jobber becomes 

 an expert in brands of fruit received from different sections 

 of the country and from separate packing-houses in the same 

 region. Very frequently these brands are demanded year 

 after year by certain retail stores; the jobber thus acts for 

 them in seeing that a constant supply of the products desired 

 is always on hand. 



392. Sale by auction. In seventeen of the large cities 

 of the United States, one or more auction markets are main- 

 tained for the sale of fruit. These have come to play a very 

 important part in establishing fruit prices throughout the 

 country. In the main, the fruits sold at auction are those 

 which will not stand storage for any great length of time. 

 The auction market acts quickly. Fruit is received by the 

 carload and enough boxes opened and examined to give a 

 fair idea of the contents of the car. The carload is then sold 

 to the highest bidder. This method cannot be successful 

 unless there is a large quantity of fruit on hand regularly, 

 of a given kind and standardized to an extent that will indi- 

 cate rather definitely the quality of the commodity. These 

 conditions alone will attract the large number of bidders 

 necessary. This method of sale is not adapted to the small 

 shipper who sends his fruit at irregular intervals. Auction 

 markets sell to jobbers and retailers. 



393. Defects in the marketing system. The same lot of 

 fruit frequently goes through the hands of many dealers of 

 one sort or another before it reaches the consumer. The 

 charge is often made that there are too many middle-men, 

 each demanding a profit from the handling of the fruit, and 

 that the system results in a high price to the consumer and a 

 low return to the producer. The tendency to consider all 

 the profits to middle-men as unearned is hardly fair. The 



