SELLING AGENCIES 187 
how many packages of fruit he will have to sell, how 
much of each variety and approximately the quantity in 
the grades of each kind. When this information is tab- 
ulated it is forwarded to the selling branch of the ex- 
change, which immediately proceeds to find sale for the 
fruit. This method gives the exchange fully six weeks 
and in some cases three months advantage over the indi- 
vidual who does not make any attempt to place his fruit 
until it is packed and ready to sell. 
Collecting information from the larger city markets 
is quite as important as that from the producers. The 
larger exchanges have their own agents in every city. It 
is the business of these agents to keep in touch with the 
people who buy, the amount of fruit shipped daily, and 
the movements of all kinds of produce. Small exchanges 
which are not large enough to have their own agent, con- 
tract with certain selling organizations which make a 
business of handling fruit, and have these organizations 
do the work which they are not able to do themselves. 
It is not uncommon to find one selling organization in a 
large city handling the business of 40 or 50 of the smaller 
exchanges. One in particular, in New York City, handles 
fruit from some of the-smaller exchanges from 24 differ- 
ent states in the Union. 
The information from the city markets would include 
the following: The daily receipts of fruit, daily con- 
sumption of fruit, daily re-shipments and the general 
market conditions. In the larger cities considerable 
fruit is shipped direct and then re-shipped to smaller 
outlying districts. This information is collected daily, 
especially through the busy season, and by code tele- 
grams forwarded, each night, by night letter to the gen- 
