MARKETING BARRELED APPLES 29 
growers. In more favorable trading seasons the dealer may obtain 
a liberal margin for cost of handling and marketing, interest, and 
risk. 
Many of the apples sold to local dealers are brought in slatted 
boxes or loose in pred just as picked in the orchard and are un- 
loaded into the dealer’s warehouse, where they are run through 
sizing and sorting machines, and put up in barrels according to 
grade. A great deal of stock is also put up in barrels on the farm, 
graded according to legal requirements, then headed, and brought 
to town for sale to the dealer, or for storage or shipment on com- 
mission. Fall varieties are mostly hauled in baskets to the local 
dealer unless sold through the local cooperative association. 
Sales to the dealer, whether a local firm or agent of outside con- 
cerns, are usually made according to terms of agreement or con- 
tract, by which the buyer takes the whole product of the orchard at 
an agreed price per barrel or per 100 pounds. Some buyers accept 
the grower’s pack, when known by experience to be reliable. Others 
are accustomed to repack on taking the barrel from cold storage. 
A considerable number of local buyers are also dryers and canners. 
They run the apples through grading machines, barrel or basket 
the best stock, and use the rest for manufacture. Most of the 
hand-picked stock left in bulk is sold as orchard run 24% inches up 
and is sorted as picked and then hauled to the loading station or to 
- temporary storage. 
Culls and windfalls are hauled to local evaporators, canneries, or 
cider mills, or are loaded in bulk on cars for shipment to mills. For 
a period of about a month, late in October or early in November, 
cider apples are important. Sales in blocks of 10 to 100 cars are not 
uncommon for this grade of fruit in western New York. 
SOUTHEASTERN REGION 
In the Potomac-Shenandoah-Cumberland Valley region the larger 
part of the crop is sold by growers for cash on immediate or future 
delivery, at loading station or cold-storage plant. Usually most of 
the crop is under contract to buyers before packing begins, especially 
when there is active demand for the early export trade. The most 
important contract buyers are representatives of prominent city 
dealers but numerous local buyers are active. A half-dozen coopera- 
tive associations handle varying quantities up to 500 carloads each and 
together rank next to the cash buyers in importance. Commission 
sales are handled mostly by a few representatives of city firms acting 
as marketing agents for growers. Some of the larger growers have 
established direct relations with firms in distant markets to whom 
they ship f. 0. b. or on commission. In full-crop seasons, early 
f. o. b. sales are less prominent and more of the fruit is stored by owners 
or is sold on consignment. 
GREAT LAKES REGION 
In southwestern Michigan, the apple trade centers around various 
lake ports, including Benton Harbor and South Haven. Much of 
the fruit is brought to town in wagonloads by the growers and sold 
for cash per bushel basket or barrel to local dealers and to agents. 
Cooperative selling is an important feature. Most of the associa- 
tions are federated and sell through large country-wide selling 
