MARKETING CABBAGE. 37 
to numerous surrounding cities. To a lesser degree this explains the 
high figures for Kansas City and perhaps for Cincinnati. Phila- 
delphia and St. Louis market districts are great cabbage-consuming 
centers; the latter unloads 10.8 tons per thousand, or 21 pounds per 
capita. Kraut factories consume a considerable part of the receipts 
of domestic cabbage in the five cities mentioned. 
On the other hand, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Detroit doubtless 
receive very large quantities of home-grown cabbage by wagon, 
motor truck, or small-lot rail shipments in addition to the car-lot 
unloads. The figure for New York does not include reshipments, 
but still seems low and is not easily explained except by saying that 
the city does not have a great cabbage-consuming population and 
has comparatively few kraut factories. New York's apparent car- 
load receipts are about 8 pounds per capita; the receipts of home- 
grown cabbage are light, amounting to less than one-half pound per 
capita according to the report of the Port of New York, authority 
on the food supply of the New York port district. 
SEASONAL CONSUMPTION. 
Owing to improved transportation facilities, cabbage is received 
at consuming markets every month in the year; but the months of 
greatest unloads are April and May when the new cabbage is arriving. 
Figure 23 indicates the four-year combined monthly average percent- 
age of unloads at 13 cities and the average monthly percentages at 
New York, Chicago, and St. Louis. 
The comparatively heavy receipts in April, May, and June at 
New York, the very light unloads in July and August, the compara- 
tively light receipts at New York from July to December, and the 
very heavy unloads of late cabbage at St. Louis from August to 
November are outstanding facts. Making due allowance for the 
fact that cars of early cabbage are loaded 5 to 20 per cent lighter 
than cars of late, New York receives more than one-fifth of its 
annual number of carloads in May, when early cabbage only is on 
the market. St. Louis obtains nearly one-fifth of its carloads in Octo- 
ber, when late cabbage dominates the market. Further details con- 
cerning shipments and the supply of cities are included in Tables 
7 to 9 and 11 to 15, inclusive, in the appendix. 
WHOLESALE MARKETING. 
After arrival in the terminal railroad yard in the larger markets, 
the regular marketing route for cabbage is from car-lot receiver to 
jobber, then to retailer, and finally to the consumer. 
The first-hand receivers of car-lot cabbage sell principally in 
large lots of 25 to 100 packages, or by the ton in bulk, to general 
produce-jobbing dealers at a price based on the cost of car lots as 
received, plus handling and delivery costs and a profit or a commis- 
sion, which varies according to whether the seller or the buyer sup- 
plies barrels, sacks, or crates, and undertakes delivery. 
If the receiver acts as a broker, he may either sell the car lot 
outright to other receivers in the same market, or in other cities, or 
to any buyer who is able to handle cabbage in car lots. He usually 
charges about $10 per car for his services. 
