AMEEICAN FRUIT AND PRODUCE AUCTIONS 7 
between the foreign and domestic products. Nevertheless, it has 
been estimated from sales records furnished by most of the com- 
panies that in 1923 approximately 90,000 cars of domestic commodi- 
ties were sold by the fruit and produce auctions. This tonnage con- 
stituted more than 10 per cent of the total commercial movement of 
866,317 cars reported by the railroads to the Bureau of Agricultural 
Economics. 
As will be noted from an examination of Table 2, only seven 
auction markets have reported sales by car lots for the five-year 
period 1919 to 1923, inclusive. These yearly totals represent the 
sales made by 10 companies. Figure 3 shows graphically the growth 
in the volume of car-lot shipments sold at auction in these seven 
markets, and although the sales on which this chart is based are 
limited to 10 of the 23 companies engaged in this business in 1923, 
it may nevertheless be assumed that the trend is indicative of the 
growth of all fruit and vegetable auctions in the United States dur- 
ing the period under consideration. 
CARLOTS OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN FRUITS AND PRODUCE 
SOLD AT AUCTION IN SEVEN MARKETS 
UNITED STATES, 1919-1923 
THOUSANDS OF CARLOADS 
15 20 25 
30 
1919 
1920 
' |" 
Ci i "i 
1921 
- * : ■' ■' -1 
;:_ ; : i \ i 
1922 
l 'i 
1923 
• . . y ' • .•■' .' : .' '-:hh 
1 1 1 I 1 1 1 
Fig. 3. — Volume of business handled by the auctions increased materially from 
1919 to 1923 
During the year the low point of auction sales is in January or 
February, when sales are largely confined to domestic citrus fruits, 
boxed apples and pears, and foreign citrus and dried fruits. Sales 
steadily increase during the next few months, reaching a small peak 
in June, when the early deciduous fruits appear in volume, then 
usually slack off noticeably in July. The volume climbs to the 
peak for the year in the fall with heavier shipments of citrus and 
deciduous fruits. After October the sales diminish rapidly during 
the next two months to the low point for the succeeding year. 
In the eastern auctions the volume of domestic citrus fruits sold 
is approximately one-third greater than the volume of deciduous 
fruits. In some of the auctions of the Middle West this situation is 
reversed, two of them selling deciduous fruits almost exclusively. 
New Orleans sells more domestic vegetables at auction than any other 
market. Domestic and foreign vegetables are sold at auction in New 
York, with a perceptible increase in the volume of domestic vege- 
tables offered in recent seasons. 
