MARKETING EASTERN GRAPES. 41 
THE STEEET MARKETS. 
The street markets in Benton Harbor and St. Joseph constitute 
an interesting development in the Berrien County section. These 
cities are surrounded by many extensive vineyards, though in the main 
the individual holdings are considerably smaller than in Van Buren 
County. The size of these holdings, and consequently the large 
number of growers, probably had an important bearing on the estab- 
lishment of the type of market at these points, for while in Van 
Buren County cooperation developed among the growers, in- the 
street markets of Benton and St. Joseph there is found an extreme 
development of competition among the buyers. 
The street sales form what is practically an auction market, for 
the farmers sell their output daily by driving to certain crowded 
street corners in these cities, where they receive bids for their loads. 
Informal regulations are agreed to; the farmers' wagons form in 
lines at certain corners, beyond which no buyers pass. The buyers 
congregate around each wagon as the line moves up and each makes 
a bid, the highest of which is usually accepted. However, if the 
grower feels that he can secure larger returns by consigning his 
shipment by freight 'br express to some city market he refuses even 
the highest bid and drives on to the railroad station. With this end 
in view, many growers address each basket with a rubber stamp to 
facilitate shipment. 
There is much controversy as to whether the returns from cooper- 
ative associations or street sales net the greatest profit to the grower, 
but the observations made by this bureau in 1918 show that only for 
a short period, when the Champion crop was cleaning up, did the 
street prices to growers exceed those paid by associations. This was 
due in part to the better average quality of the associations' stock 
produced under close inspection and in part by the very nature of 
the business of the two types of factors, for the local buyers, who 
dealt on the street market, had to sell their grapes on a basis fairly 
comparable with the f . o. b. prices received by the associations them- 
selves. 
Usually the street prices reflect very closely the daily quotations 
from the tributary terminal markets, but in a few cases temporary 
abnormally high or low prices result from the vagaries of supply 
and demand. For example, on some evenings several buyers have 
carloads or boatloads nearly completed and bid up stock to high 
prices in order to secure quantity transportation rates, conversely 
relatively low levels often prevail because available carriers are 
completely loaded. - 
