MARKETING EASTERN GRAPES. 53 
St. Louis, Kansas City, Des Moines, Oklahoma City, Omaha, and 
Denver receive considerable home-grown stock very early in the 
season, but the larger part of their supply is furnished by Michigan. 
The standard blue varieties packed in 4-quart baskets are desired 
by the trade, and little other stock appears on these markets. A 
very limited quantity of Catawbas may be moved late in the season. 
In the southern markets — Jacksonville, Atlanta, Birmingham, 
Memphis, Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, and New Orleans — there is 
no marked preference between the 2-quart and 4-quart baskets. 
Shipments to these cities, shown in the Appendix, give no adequate 
idea of their consuming capacity, as the short crop of 1918 restricted 
the distribution to markets nearer the producing sections. None of 
these markets can stand heavy receipts without a proportionately 
marked drop in prices, but in the aggregate they represent an im- 
portant outlet which should receive more attention. While the 
Concord is the most popular grape in these cities, there is not so 
much prejudice against red varieties as there is farther north. 
In the cities of the far West — Spokane, Seattle, Portland, Butte, 
San Francisco, and Los Angeles — the receipts of grapes of European 
varieties from California far exceed those of American varieties 
or Eastern grapes. However, some Catawbas are raised in California 
and find their way into the markets of Los Angeles and San Fran- 
cisco, usually in 4-basket crates, and the other cities are supplied by 
Washington with the Concord type of grapes. WTiile Michigan 
grapes have been shipped to the more northern of these cities, the 
great bulk of the arrivals in Portland, Spokane, Seattle, and Butte 
are shipped from neighboring producing sections, principally the 
Yakima Valley. The Concord is the favorite grape of this type in 
these markets, though other varieties usually sell well, and the 4- 
quart basket is the common container, except in Portland, where 2- 
quart baskets are used almost exclusively. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
THE PRINCIPLES. 
No phase of marketing perishable products is more important, 
or holds greater possibilities for improvement, than the distribution 
of shipments. It should be the aim of all shippers to supply ade- 
quately the demand in neighboring consuming centers, up to the 
point where further supplies would cause disastrous clogging of 
the channels of trade. At this point or, under ideal conditions, 
just before this point is reached, shipments would be made to other 
cities more distant from the point of origin, even though higher 
freight- rates render such shipments relatively less profitable. 
