32 BULLETIN 1325. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
cooperative associations. Commission sales of car lots are a small 
part of the trade in most city markets; but considerable local crated 
stock and numerous small-lot shipments are handled on commission, 
and a small proportion of the early northern receipts is sold at 
auction (fig. 19). 
There are no dealers who handle onions exclusively except in one 
or two great markets like New York, but in many large cities there 
is a group of receivers and jobbers who handle mostly onions, 
cabbage, and potatoes. In small city markets the dealers in a more 
or less complete line of general produce handle onions. 
Most sales by car-lot receivers are of broken lots of 25 to 100 
packages, to jobbers and small wholesalers who depend on the re- 
ceivers for their supplies from day to day. In some cities many 
Fig. 19. — Texas onions are offered at a few of the produce auction *ales 
retailers buy directly from cars, buying as few as one or two pack- 
ages at a time, usually at a premium over jobbing prices, but most 
sales to retailers in the great city markets are made by wholesalers 
and jobbers, from stores and the various public markets. 
Car-lot sales are sometimes made in the wholesale markets to 
speculators who depend mostly on the peddler trade, though fre- 
quently these sell to jobbers at a slight advance over cost. Some 
car-lot sales during the late fall and early winter months are made to 
out of town buyers and to jobbers and wholesalers who wish to 
store onions. 
The chain-store grocery companies handle as high as 15 per cent 
of the receipts in certain markets. They buy mostly f. o. b. at 
shipping point, but whenever short of supplies they appear on the 
local market. 
