324 THE APPLE 



Each consignment is carefully recorded, and returns on sales 

 are made by the commission man, minus his commission, cartage, 

 handling, and, in some cases, freight charges. Returns are made 

 daily or later with check to balance, or a check is given at certain 

 stated periods. Large amounts of fruit are handled in this way. 



The jobber. Sometimes another middleman handles the apples. 

 He purchases from the commission man, and is known as the 

 jobber. These men or houses generally have a patronage of retail 

 stores, clubs, hotels, etc., which they keep supplied with produce. 

 They are often forced to purchase on the market if they do not 

 have enough consignments. They frequently make from 25 to 

 40 cents on each barrel of apples. The cartage from the commis- 

 sion men to the jobbers and from the latter to the retailers, clubs, 

 hotels, etc. must be paid for, and between 10 and 25 cents per 

 barrel is charged for this labor. 



The retailer. At times, by coming in direct touch with the 

 retailers, a grower can find a good market and often realize the 

 highest returns. Good advice is to deal with only one retailer in 

 a place, and ship nothing but first-class material in the form that 

 will best suit the retailer. Some growers enjoy soliciting this trade, 

 while to others it is distasteful. 



Some retailers are equipped with horses and wagons or with 

 auto-trucks, and can easily go to the larger wholesale markets and 

 purchase directly from the commission men, loading the goods at 

 once and thereby saving the expenses of the jobber. When the 

 retailer lacks transporting facilities the jobber will deliver the apples 

 directly to the store at an advance over the prices of the commis- 

 sion man. The jobbers keep teams, wagons, and men, and must, 

 of course, charge for delivery in order to maintain their equipment. 



The push-cart men and hucksters in the large cities also purchase 

 most of their fruit from the jobbers. However, at times both 

 these classes of venders are able to obtain from the commission 

 men fruit of poor quality at very low prices, or a better quality 

 when the market is glutted. 



Association selling. Another way of disposing of the fruit is 

 through a union or an association. This is simply an organization 

 formed to help the grower realize a fair profit by doing away with 

 some of the middlemen who eat up the profits and leave little. 



