MARKETING LETTUCE 41 
With these sources of information at hand, the careful observer 
is enabled to keep in close touch with prevailing market conditions. 
They provide a substantial basis upon which to forecast the volume 
of tonnage from competing sections and the price trends in the 
various markets. They enable the shipper to determine with more 
or less accuracy when and where shipments may be sent for the best 
results, and to check up on returns for sales already made. 
GOVERNMENT INSPECTION 
The development of the Federal fruit and vegetable inspection 
service in the past few years has been of great benefit in promoting 
fair and equitable business relations between buyers and sellers. For 
several years the scope of this service was limited to shipments which 
had arrived in the terminal markets after moving in interstate com- 
merce, but recently it was extended to include inspection at loading 
points. Lettuce shipments are now inspected and their quality and 
condition certified by Government inspectors at points of origin in 
several States. A certificate is reproduced in Figure 24. 
One of the most noticeable and far-reaching results of this ship- 
ping-point inspection service has been the standardization of ship- 
ments originating in sections where the service is available. This 
service is exerting a large influence in keeping products of inferior 
quality out of the channels of trade, in addition to providing ship- 
pers with an official record that is recognized in all United States 
courts as prima facie evidence of the quality and condition of the 
products. It is resulting in better use of transportation, improved 
relationships between buyers and sellers, better distribution, lower 
cost of marketing, higher net returns to growers and shippers, and 
a higher grade of food to consumers. It is also tending to place 
the marketing of perishables on a point-of-origin basis. The pop- 
ularity of the service is such that approximately 131,000 carloads 
of fruits and vegetables were inspected at shipping points from 
July 1, 1924, to June 30, 1925. 12 
SUMMARY 
Lettuce is now an all-year product in most markets. The in- 
dustry has grown marvelously during recent years, until in 1923 
the crop ranked third among the vegetables in point of car lots 
shipped. It was exceeded only by potatoes and cabbage. In farm 
value lettuce ranked sixth. Car-lot shipments were more than 
600 per cent as great as in 1916. The largest gains have been made 
in the Western States. 
Ten States — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, New 
Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wash- 
ington — produce more than 97 per cent of the lettuce grown in 
the United States. 
Almost the entire commercial crop is head lettuce. In the main 
Big Boston is grown in the Eastern and Southeastern States and 
the Iceberg type in the Western States. Leaf lettuce, of which 
Grand Rapids is the only variety of importance, is grown in green- 
12 Detailed information concerning- the Government inspection of fresh fruits and vege- 
tables may be obtained upon application to the Food Products) Inspection Service, Bureau 
of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
