MARKETING PEANUTS 39 
Possibly half the peanut sales in larger city markets are made 
through brokers who represent the cleaners and shellers. These repre- 
sentatives may carry the accounts of one or more large cleaners or 
shellers, and supply wholesale confectioners, bakery-supply houses, 
peanut-butter manufacturers, salters, and wholesale grocers, as well 
as jobbers. The purchases may be made direct from the cleaner or 
sheller in the South, or through a broker in one of the more important 
shipping centers, who often represents a considerable number of 
plants. 
There is no uniformity in the method of purchase. One broker, two, 
or none, may figure in the sale. In some cities brokers handle the bulk 
of the transactions; in others, the large buyers prefer to purchase 
directly from the southern cleaner or sheller without dealing through a 
middleman. An occasional large shipper in the South deals only with 
the purchaser direct, claiming in this way to curtail expenses. The 
brokerage charge of 2 per cent may be split between the brokerage 
firms in the South and at the receiving market if both are involved in a 
transaction. This fee is paid by the offering broker's principal rather 
than by the receiver. Thus the prices which are quoted to the latter 
are strictly net. 
Formerly the sale of peanuts was largely confined to car-lot quan- 
tities. A car lot of shelled Spanish or Runner peanuts usually weighs 
about 30,000 pounds, a car lot of shelled Virginias about 28,000 
pounds, and a car lot of peanuts in the shell about 25,000 pounds. 
Increased competition and the tendency of many firms to buy on a 
"hand-to-mouth" basis, has caused practically all shippers and 
brokers, especially in the Virginia- North Carolina section and the 
Southwest, to accept orders in smaller lots. In Virginia and North 
Carolina, although the bulk of the peanut business continues to be 
handled in car lots, small-lot shipments are numerous and constitute 
a much greater proportion of the total movement than in the past. 
Shipments from most towns in the Southeastern States are still 
almost entirely confined to car-lot quantities. Frequently a city 
broker sells several less-than-car-lot orders for one firm to be shipped 
in what is known as a "pool car." As car-lot freight rates are always 
cheaper than less-car-lot rates, a saving in freight charges is thus 
effected. 
During the spring of 1922 a number of cars of cleaned Virginias 
were sold at auction in New York City. Most of the purchases 
were made by retailers who ordinarily buy from the large receivers. 
The experiment aroused some ill feeling, both among the regular 
receivers in New York and among many Virginia shippers, and no 
further sales of peanuts by auction have been made. 
PEANUTS IN CITY STORAGES 
Peanuts in the shell can be stored for a considerable period of 
time in the dealers' storerooms or in ordinary dry-storage ware- 
houses, without danger of deterioration or apparent loss of quality, 
except that the skin adheres more tightly and the color grows darker. 
Accordingly, peanuts in the shell are generally stored in common 
storages. 18 
18 Experiments are now under way by the Department of Agriculture to determine the storage life of 
different varieties of peanuts at various temperatures in cold and common storages. 
