MARKETING CABBAGE. 15 
and intermediate crop States follow in order. The main crop occu- 
pies the market in the fall and more or less throughout the winter. 
The early crop begins to move about December and reaches its 
peak movement with the spring crop in April or May. (See also 
Table 10.) Sometimes 4,000 cars are shipped during the month or 
four weeks of heaviest movement. Then the late crop (including 
the intermediate) gets well under way in August, attains its greatest 
volume in October with 5,000 to 6,000 cars, and continues in dimin- 
ishing quantities until the following April. It is evident that the 
late and early crops overlap during the winter months. In fact, 
late-crop cabbage, second-crop cabbage, and early cabbage are 
found on the market simultaneously during the first months of the 
year. 
South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, and California produce two 
crops of cabbage — one maturing in the winter, called the second crop 
and one maturing in the spring, called the early crop. In South 
Carolina, during March, these crops grow side by side and are mar- 
keted together. The second crop is a Holland or Flat Dutch variety 
that competes with the storage varieties of the Northern States. 
COUNTRY SELLING METHODS. 
By far the greater part of the crop in the leading commercial cab- 
bage sections is sold to local buyers of one class or another at about 
the time of harvest. Diverse conditions in marketing are caused 
partly by differences in business practices and partly by the more 
perishable nature of the early crop. The system of crop loans and 
advance contracts in the southern cabbage sections practically forces 
the majority of growers to sell at once to local dealers. 
The general line of movement of the southeastern crop is from 
field to packing shed, to local dealer's car, to wholesale receiver, to 
jobber, to retailer, to consumer. Texas and southern California cab- 
bage is sold on the ton basis, in bulk, delivered to the dealers for 
loading or crating. 
The late commercial crop is generally sold to resident shippers or 
agents of city wholesale houses who buy from the growers by the 
wagonload. The grower hauls the produce to the car or to the 
storage house, which is often at a loading station. There are also a 
few growers' associations which load their own cars and have their 
own selling agents. The ton is the prevailing unit of sale for trans- 
actions between the grower and the shipper. The dealers may buy 
growers' offerings by the car for cash delivered at the going car-lot 
price, and the car when shipped may comprise a single grower's 
haulings or that of several growers, as is more often the case. 
The typical lot of cabbage not intended for local kraut manufac- 
ture may go in bulk directly to the local dealer's car at the loading 
and shipping station; or, if storage stock it may be held in farm or 
local storage for weeks or months before shipment to the city dealer. 
SALES BY LOCAL DEALERS. 
The local buyers sell or ship the cabbage to city wholesale dealers. 
They sell mostly on " wire orders" — that is, orders which city dealers 
have placed with them by telegraph in response to offers previously 
wired by the shippers. 
