1332 
sell on much better terms than the in- 
dividual shipper who visits the market 
only occasionally. Likewise, among mer- 
chants, the man who keeps in touch with 
other markets knows much better how 
to distribute his excess supply, or send 
orders to meet the demands of his cus- 
tomers, than the dealer whose acquain- 
tance is not so large. 
The shipper or his representative 
should know also the characteristics of 
the various markets which may take his 
produce. For instance, a certain town 
will be able to use one full carload of 
cherries, while for another town it would 
be better to make up a mixed car con- 
sisting of cherries and two or three other 
kinds of fruit; or, again, in one city, 
as New York, it is important for certain 
produce to be delivered in time for the 
night market, while at Chicago the ship- 
ments will be on time for the regular 
market if they reach the railroad ter- 
minals or the steamboat wharves before 
daybreak. 
Reports of market conditions are given 
regularly and with varying degrees of 
accuracy in daily newspapers, trade and 
agricultural journals, and in circulars is- 
sued by dealers and organizations. In 
addition to these sources of information, 
some shippers and dealers receive spe- 
cial reports, by mail or wire, from dif- 
ferent markets. 
Control of Produce in Transit 
Information as to the location of a 
given car in transit may usually be ob- 
tained from the railroad company which 
is hauling the car. But some large ship- 
pers have a system of their own by 
which they trace the movement of cars 
in transit, in order to distribute them 
among the different markets to the best 
advantage. One organization in California 
adopted this system of distributing ship- 
ments: When a member shipped a car 
of produce, he turned the bill of lading 
over to the manager of the organzation 
and allowed him to direct the movement 
of the car to market. The object of 
having one central authority select the 
markets was to prevent sending an over- 
supply to any one place. On receiving 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
the bill of lading, a record of the car 
was made on a card in the office of the 
organization and the card filed in its 
proper place in a drawer. This drawer 
was divided into several rows of com- 
partments, opening upward; each row 
had 31 compartments, and there was one 
row for each principal market in the 
United States. The 31 compartments rep- 
resented each one day of a month. When 
a card was filed its location was deter- 
mined by the destination named in the 
bill of lading and by the day of the month 
on which the consignment was due at the 
destination. For instance, a carload of 
cherries shipped to New York from a 
point in the Sacramento valley on May 
27 would be represented by a card filed 
in the New York row of the drawer and 
in the compartment numbered 7, if the 
consignment would be due in New York 
on June 7. The arrangement of these 
cards showed at a glance the intended 
distribution of this association’s ship- 
ments among the different markets, and 
when too many consignments of a given 
kind of fruit were on the way to a given 
market the grouping together of several 
cards in one box served as a warning 
that the destination of one or more cars 
should be changed. This drawer showed 
only such fruit as was shipped by this 
association. News of other shipments and 
of their probable time of arrival at des- 
tination was secured, to some extent, by 
the association. When it became known 
that a certain market was about to re- 
ceive an oversupply of a given fruit, one 
or more of the shippers who had con- 
signed to that market would be notified 
by the association manager, so that they 
might select another city to which to di- 
vert their consignments. In case they 
should refuse to make such a selection 
the rules of the association gave the man- 
ager the right to divert the shipments 
himself. 
The movement of a car in transit was 
traced by the association by a system 
Similar to that used by some railroads. 
Each car shipped east by the association 
was reported by telegraph as it passed 
certain points along the way. 
