WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 11 
been purchased outright in car lots, part purchased in small lots from 
other receivers, and part consigned on commission. While one firm 
may act in the triple capacity of car-lot wholesaler, commission man, 
and jobber, the three lines of business thus carried on at the same 
time are very distinct and for purposes of discussion may be consid- 
ered as being performed by three separate firms. In every large 
market there are concerns which confine themselves to one of these 
lines, but by far the greater number of produce distributors do busi- 
ness in several lines. 
CAUSES OF COMPLICATED METHODS. 
Various factors have contributed to the development of manifold 
methods of marketing. The use of refrigerator cars for shipping 
perishables from distant producing sections and the attendant growth 
of business in handling goods out of season have had a tremendous 
effect. With the radius of the zone of supplies thus lengthened, mar- 
keting activities have increased to keep pace with the movement, and 
with increased activity have come increases in complexity and in 
costs. 
When consideration is given to the vast territory which supplies 
any one of our large cities with its fruits and vegetables, the wonder 
is that distributive machinery is not more hampered and labored in 
its action. Thus, on one day in the fall of 1914 Kansas City was 
receiving peaches from Utah, Idaho, and Washington; grapes from 
California and Michigan; cantaloupes from Colorado, New Mexico, 
Arkansas, and Missouri ; pears from California and Colorado ; sweet 
potatoes from Virginia and Georgia; and apples from Colorado, 
Washington, New Mexico, New York, Arkansas, and Missouri. With 
daily supplies coming from all sections of the country and with the 
necessity for adjusting machinery to care for varying quantities, it 
is not to be expected that the flow of produce through market chan- 
nels will be smooth and uninterrupted, nor that prices will be stable 
and uniformly satisfactory. 
SALES BY BROKERS. 
In spite of general complexity, however, explanations of the sales 
methods of some of the principal, independent, distributing agencies 
may prove useful. Thus, there is the broker who handles car lots 
only, as a rule, and who draws his business from cooperative asso- 
ciations, country speculators, large operators, private exchanges, and 
in some cases private shippers. According to strict interpretation, 
the term " broker " can be applied only to those middlemen who act 
as intermediaries between the principals in contemplated transac- 
tions and have nothing further to do with the contract itself. The 
broker normally does not have possession of the articles he deals in, 
