MARKETING ONIONS 51 
For the grower of late onions, the most important crop and ship- 
ment news comes from the leading main-crop sections, such as West- 
ern Xew York, the Connecticut Valley, central California. Hardin 
County, Ohio, and the Walkerton district. Ind. The leading market 
grade is generally the Yellow Globe U. S. No. 1 or, in Kansas City 
and St. Louis, the Red Globe. 
Even with the general situation forecasted correctly, the element 
of uncertainty remains, because of unforeseen and uncontrollable 
conditions affecting whole districts or whole regions, such as rail- 
mad tie-ups. car shortage, scarcity of labor, storms, floods, and insect 
invasions. Xo crop grower can be right always, but fortune mere 
often favors those who have made the best use of available informa- 
tion. 
COST OF MARKETING 
The final price paid by the consumer to the retailer for any product 
includes compensation for a variety of services other than actual 
production. Each of the agencies who>e services are required in dis- 
tribution must be reimbursed for expenses incurred and if efficient 
should also receive a certain margin of profit. The country dealer 
who assembles and ships the onions: the wholesaler who receives and 
sells in car lots, or in smaller units to jobbers: the jobber who sup- 
plies the retail trade in quantities from one package up. are each 
subject to certain expenditures in operation. These may include 
grading, packing, transportation, storage, labor for handling, and 
space for display, as well as the risk incident to ownership, especially 
during a season of falling prices. Frequently it is necessary for the 
dealer to take a loss in order to move some stock, and this loss must 
be covered by returns from more successful operations. The re- 
tailer is responsible for choice of the right grade and type of stock 
for his particular trade : if he gue-ses wrong or pays too high a 
price or overstocks on a falling market, he must suffer temporarily 
until more fortunate judgment enables him to recover. In addition, 
certain indirect expenses such as rent for land and buildings, salary 
to the dealer as well as to his employees, and allowance for interest 
and a " reasonable return " on the capital invested are to be con- 
sidered. 
Each of these factors varies in importance according to season 
and crop, business conditions, local habits of the buying public, 
and numerous other influences, and each must be considered before 
the amount charged by any agency can be judged fair and adequate. 
The services of the agencies of distribution are in general necessary 
to insure the orderly marketing of agricultural products, and it i- 
important that their respective returns should be lame enough to 
attract a sufficient number of dealers to insure that the various func- 
tions are efficientlv performed. 
Results from a^ study of price.- of onions shipped from the Con- 
necticut Yallev and sold in the retail markets of Boston from Au- 
gust, 1920, to' September. 1921, made by the Massachusetts Stale 
Department of Agriculture, are summarized in the <hart (fig. 32 
showino the average portions of the consumer's dollar retained by 
each middleman and by the grower. The bar on the right in Figure 
