PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 13 



During a recent visit East I have seen with my own eyes a car of 

 American River grapes selling in one New York auction room at the 

 same moment that a similar car of grapes, belonging to neighboring 

 growers on the American River, was being sold in another auction room. 

 Here were about seventy-five buyers in one room, and one hundred or 

 more in the other room, both bidding separately upon the same kind of 

 fruit coming from the same district, and while, owing to the fact that 

 the market about that time had been quite bare of grapes, these two car- 

 loads brought fairly good prices, yet they did not bring their full value. 



You may ask, "What is the full value of fresh fruit?" I would 

 answer and say the full value is the highest price which can be obtained 

 as the result of the fullest and freest competition, not among a handful 

 of buyers, not among half the buyers, but among all the buyers in any 

 one market. There is not the shadow of a doubt in my mind, nor 

 could there be in the mind of any other intelligent observer, but what, 

 if these two carloads had been sold under the same roof, and the one 

 hundred and seventy-five buyers had been brought together, that the 

 competition among them would have been materially increased, and the 

 growers would have received still better prices for their product. 



The observations I made, especially in the City of New York, during 

 my visit in September last, corrected, however, one mistaken notion in 

 this connection, under which I had labored. I had been under the 

 impression that the New York buyers, in particular, wanted two or 

 more auction sales to be conducted at the same hour, under the belief 

 that they could buy fruit cheaper than in a consolidated salesroom, and 

 that, therefore, they would, if possible, prevent a consolidated salesroom 

 from being established. I found, however, as a result of a canvass 

 among them, that while in the past they favored two or more sales- 

 rooms, experience had taught them that it was even in their best 

 interests that a consolidated salesroom shall be established. 



Let me take you with me to interview one of these New York dealers, 

 so that you may more fully understand the situation. 



"Mr. , I see that you deal in California fruits." 



"Yes, sir." 



" May I ask at which pier you buy your fruits? " 



" I buy sometimes on the Erie, sometimes on the West Shore, and sometimes on both." 

 " How can you buy at both places when sales are going on on both piers at the same 

 time?" 



"I do this by having one of my men at one place while I am at the other." 



"Well, but how can you, under those conditions, buy intelligently? How do you 

 know what your man may be buying, and how does he know what you may be buying?" 



"Oh, well, I try to overcome this by having a third man who keeps running between 

 the two piers with a view to keeping one posted what the other is doing." 



"Well, but I should think that this would be of but little avail, from the fact that the 

 selling is rapidly conducted and that you must act with instant decision, and when an 

 opportunity to buy at what you think is a satisfactory price is at hand you must act at 

 once, without being able to await the return of your messenger, who may be on the 

 other pier." 



" That is true ; I do find this a serious problem." 



" Well, then, does it not happen that without knowing that your man has already 

 bought on the other pier you also buy a lot of similar fruit, and then, on comparing 

 notes after the sales, find yourself seriously overbought for the day? " 



"Yes ; that does frequently happen." 



"And does it not also happen that you, depending upon your man buying upon the 

 other pier, and he in turn depending upon your buying at your pier — both of you, in 

 your dependence upon each other, and despite the use of the messenger, who cannot be 

 in both places at the same time, must allow opportunities to slip by and discover, after 

 the sales are over, that neither has bought, and that to get a supply you must buy from 

 your rivals at a profit to them? " 



"Yes ; that also happens frequently." 



"Well, then, how can you intelligently conduct your business?" 



