The Chicago Market. 475 
receipts meets the conditions exacted, so that the 
amount that can be disposed of to this class of 
buyers is limited, and their requirements ‘are also 
about in the same proportion. 
“The next grade is of really good quality and 
good condition, so that it can be handled with a 
reasonable degree of safety, and good for, say, 
twenty-four hours’ transit to other points, or to be 
handled safely by the average retail grocer who 
supplies the well-to-do classes. The competition for 
this class of fruit is the greatest, and often a sale 
turns on the condition only, the shipper often turn- 
ing from a good line of fruit and accepting some- 
thing not so desirable in quality, to secure that 
which will reach his customers in good condition. 
It is very much better to have a medium grade of 
quality in good condition than a fancy line of fruit 
as to flavor, size, etc., worthless on account of de- 
eay. That fruit which lacks the carrying qualities 
desired by the shipper is just right for the retail 
dealer, and, as a rule, will class good to choice. 
“There are then left the inferior grades, both as 
to quality and condition. For these, buyers are 
found among the grocery keepers in the poorer sec- 
tions of the city,—among the foreign populations. 
They are good judges of fruit, and buy to meet the 
wants of their customers. With them, also, there 
are the peddlers, a numerous class and an influen- 
tial one, whose trade is necessary in handling large 
receipts. These latter also use the refuse, the ‘off 
condition’ of all grades, and the poorest qualities 
