216 MODERN FRUIT MARKETING 
of 20 minutes each. They are paid on a commission basis 
for the amount of fruit they sell. 
No one in England except licensed buyers are per- 
mitted in the auction room. They have to pay certain 
fees to belong to the company and to have the privilege 
of buying. Each one’s record, his bank references and 
reliability must be certified to before he can become a 
member. This apparently is necessary in order that the 
auction company may guarantee their sales. They are 
supposed to remit within 24 hours after the sale and 
then collect from the buyers cash in 5 to 10 days. If 
buyers were allowed indiscriminately to bid in the fruit 
there would of necessity be considerable chance for 
buyers to default, and then the auction company would 
be the loser. Hence only regular licensed members can 
buy fruit at the auction of the foreign markets. 
Special Retail—This is a system of disposing of fruit 
that has only recently become of any material impor- 
tance. The tendency is to eliminate the middleman 
wherever possible and deal direct with the consumer. 
To do this several methods have been made use of. 
The most common is the parcel post. Many of the more 
perishable fruits can now be packed in special cartons 
and sent through the mail direct to the consumer. Some 
of the less perishable kinds of fruit and their by- 
products, such as prunes, dried fruit, nuts, etc., enjoy 
an especially low postal rate, hence there are possibili- 
ties in disposing of large quantities of fruit in this 
manner. 
Many of the various express companies have followed 
the example set by the Government in the use of the 
parcel post, by establishing low express rates intending 
