MARKETING ONIONS 33 
In markets below the first rank the services of the various dealers 
are not clearly distinguishable. The car-lot receiver may be the 
jobber also and he may sell in any quantity from one package to a 
carload, or he may even sell at retail. Occasionally he receives 
some stock for sale on commission. 
There is practically no distinction in such markets between re- 
ceivers and jobbers, for the majority of the receivers job their 
stock. In middle-western cities there is a distinction between these 
two classes of dealers and the small wholesalers who buy from the 
jobbers, unload the stuff into the store, and usually sell direct from 
the store or from the sidewalk in any quantity asked for. Such 
sales are considered wholesale and the buyers in such cases must 
call for their purchases. 
Frequently when it is known -the stock will be of a quality and 
condition that will meet requirements of the buyers, orders are taken 
before the car arrives. If the receiver is the jobber, as in many 
cities of 500,000 or less, he usually hauls the bulk of the car to his 
store to supply his needs, and any surplus is distributed among a few 
of the other jobbers. In late fall and early winter Carloads are pur- 
chased direct or through brokers by both wholesalers and jobbers to 
be stored for future needs. As a rule the smaller the market center 
the more confused is the marketing, and the more pronounced the 
tendency to combine the functions of the different classes of dealers. 
Often the marketing systems of the smaller cities and towns are 
simple in appearance only, the market being practically a branch 
of some larger city market and drawing most of its outside supply 
from the various wholesale distributers there. In some cities of 
small to medium size several small dealers combine to purchase full 
carlots through brokers, avoiding the usual jobbers' margin. 
The home-grown stock hauled from adjacent farms constitutes 
from 5 to 15 per cent of the onion supply of most large markets, and 
from one-third to a much larger proportion of the supply in many 
smaller markets near local producing areas. It is sold in a variety 
of ways, depending on how far the producer can dispense with the 
wholesale dealers. Most growers close to market have small crops, 
which they cart or truck to town and sell in small lots to retail mer- 
chants or peddlers. Larger quantities may be sold to jobbers either 
by the load or by the whole crop. If the quantity is very small, the 
grower is likely to peddle it out with other vegetables to consumers 
or ship it in small lots to city commission dealers. The larger the 
quantity and the longer the distance from market the less the* degree 
of personal attention on the part of the grower and the greater his 
dependence on the services of agencies of transportation and sale. 
Some of the variations of the wholesale onion trade are described 
in the accounts of representative city markets. 
FEATURES OF CITY MARKETS 
EASTERN* MARKETS 
New York City.— Of the 4,500 carloads of onions unloaded an- 
nually in Xew York City, two-thirds are received from four Stated 
(see figs. 20 and 21 and Table 8). Nearly one-third comes from 
23624°— 25 5 
