THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
993 
To Apple Shippers to the New York 
City Market. 
System with attention to details is necessary to es¬ 
tablish a free open auction market in New York City 
to all shippers. When once established it will main¬ 
tain itself automatically. The percentage of the year’s 
receipts of apples arriving each month during the sea¬ 
son has not varied materially during the past 20 years. 
The average percentage for each month for 10 years is 
as follows: August 4.8; September 11.4; October 21.8; 
November 19.0; December 10.7; January 8.0; Febru¬ 
ary G.8; March 7.5; April 5.1; May 2.8; June 1.1; 
July 0.4. Of course a large part of the October and 
November shipments go into storage, and these are avail¬ 
able for distribution as needed. Heretofore these ap¬ 
ples have been sold at private sale, and buyers have ne¬ 
cessarily gone to the private salesrooms for them. The 
commission and jobbing houses know what to expect 
from day to day and from month to month. They have 
the records of the past which vary little one year with 
another. When the auction market is once established 
its shipments will be equally regular. Every day will 
bring its quota. Buyers will always find a supply, and 
the apples will move promptly and regularly. 
Our present task is to establish the first season’s 
steady supply of graded apples for the auction market. 
The trade papers and commission houses which have 
controlled the apple trade for years, understand full 
well that, if the auction market is once established, 
there will be no more private sales. They know that it 
is necessary to have a steady supply in order to make a 
success of the auction proposition. If buyers went to 
the market and found no apples, they would be obliged 
to return to the commission houses and jobbers, and 
would probably continue to go to them from that time 
on. That is why the trade papers are trying so hard 
to discourage the auction movement. They know what 
the auction sales did for California, Florida, Porto 
Rico, and foreign fruits and bananas. It took all these 
fruits out of private sales and keeps them out. They 
know it will do the same thing for apples, and they are 
going to hang on to this fat trade as long as they can. 
If there were no false charges, no speculation and no 
cheating the commissions alone on the New York ap¬ 
ple trade would be close to a million dollars annually. 
We can feel sure this trade will not be given up with¬ 
out a struggle. They know that the only way they can 
prevent the success of the auction market is to dis¬ 
courage the growers, and persuade them to continue 
shipments to the private sales, or to sell the apples to 
speculators in the field. The indications are already 
that higher prices than formerly will be offered in the 
orchard in order to keep the apples out of the auction 
market. Growers, however, realize the situation pret¬ 
ty thoroughly and they are already signing up ship¬ 
ments to the auction for a part of their pack, and as 
soon as the auction market is selling the goods and 
making the returns, these growers will make further 
shipments. 
To secure the necessary steady supply for this year 
we must have a system of organization. This will al¬ 
ways be wise in order to get the right amount of goods 
at the right time to command the best prices. Growers 
should simply form themselves into an apple shippers’ 
association or club, and appoint one of their members 
as secretary to correspond with the auction market in 
New York, and attend to the shipments. This secre¬ 
tary may also be one of the general committee to have 
charge of the general policy of the sales. If advisable 
he might be on the block when the apples are sold, and 
exercise his right to one bid, if the prices did not suit 
him. This privilege could also be delegated to the 
general manager of the auction market. 
Each lot of apples will be sold under the brand of 
the man who grew them. Samples of each lot will 
be opened and exposed so that the apples will sell on 
their merits in a competition of experienced buyers. In 
private sales one or two buyers may know your brand, 
and these buyers may pay a fair price for them; but 
in the auction market there are likely to be two or 
three hundred buyers anxious to get them, and the 
chances of a fancy price for fancy stock are infinitely 
better. The market for cooking apples in barrels or 
bulk will naturally improve with the development of 
the trade in the standard brands; but if a grower has 
only three barrels, he should sort out the standard 
grade, and ship the others, if at all, as ungraded va¬ 
rieties. This practice will help the trade generally; 
and results in better prices as a whole. The grower 
who takes the greatest pains in packing in standard 
grades will have the advantage in either the private 
or public sale; but the auction market with its more 
economical distribution and publicity of prices, should 
greatly increase consumption, and in doing so make a 
quicker market with better prices for all grades of ap¬ 
ples. 
Organization is necessary to provide a steady supply 
during the first weeks of the auction market, and New 
York State funds can be used for organization pur¬ 
poses only within the State; but growers in any 
State may unite in a shipping club and arrange to ship 
to the auction market, which will, under proper condi¬ 
tions be open to shipments from anywhere. Shipments 
may, of course, be made by individuals from 
any State as well as by associations; but in or¬ 
der to get the goods catalogued, they must conform to 
the standard grades. Otherwise they would be classed 
as ungraded and sold as such. An impartial State in¬ 
spector will classify all shipments. New York grow¬ 
ers are bound by law to ship in standard grades, or as 
ungraded, and the Agricultural Department has ex¬ 
pressed a purpose to enforce the law strictly. While 
this may seem irksome to some on the start, ultimately 
it will work a great benefit to New York growers, and 
producers in other States will do well to follow the 
New York standard in their pack, or improve on it, for 
New York City or other metropolitan markets. 
of this section. Instead of each farmer coming into 
these markets and competing with his neighbor, an 
organization of these farmers could benefit all con¬ 
cerned financially by shipping this surplus in one lot 
to larger cities. Another cause is the general busi¬ 
ness depression, which has been felt more in this city 
than many depressions of former years, as it seems 
a number of manufacturers have been compelled either 
to close temporarily or run on restricted output. 
Ronks, Pa. e. j. w. 
A Michigan Potato Meeting. 
There will be a big Potato Congress and show held at 
Marquette, Michigan, next October. The exact date 
has not yet been determined. An effort will be made to 
combine the 15 counties of the upper peninsula of 
Michigan so as to hold a great potato exhibition. It 
is not generally known by outsiders that this upper 
country produces fine potatoes and many of them. They 
are noted for their table quality, and an effort will 
be made to put the upper peninsula on the map and 
make it known to the rest of the world. Large prizes 
will be offered, and everything done that can be well done 
to promote potato culture. The chances now are that 
we shall have another large crop of potatoes this year, 
and we must not be left with millions of bushels on 
hand above ordinary requirements. In order to avoid 
this we must develop requirements that are out of the 
ordinary. Too late in the season last year a campaign 
was started to prepare potato flour, stock food from po¬ 
tatoes, also possibly alcohol and other products. Some¬ 
thing of this was done, but it did not get going early 
enough. This year the potato men intend to start this 
work up early, put it on its way before the crop is 
dug, and thus be prepared to take care of the potato 
surplus. This meeting at Marquette will be along the 
line of developing not only good table potatoes, but 
finding new uses for the stock. 
The 35-cent Dollar Once More. 
I read a lot about the 79-eent dollar in “Farm Life” 
and such papers, and would like to quote a little trans¬ 
action in the neighboring town. I sold to the butcher 
of that town a veal calf which dressed 100 pounds; 
this was hog dressed, and I got $12, and at this he 
thought he was giving me a present of about $6. A 
friend of mine bought the same morning from the same 
butcher a couple of pounds of veal steak and he had 
to pay 35 cents a pound. We have a three-year-old 
bull for the butchers and they won’t touch it. They 
say “sell it to a drover, it’s too heavy,” and all the 
drovers will offer is seven or eight cents live weight 
and the butcher is charging 25 cents a pound for a 
common cut of meat and 40 cents for a soup bone. 
Seventy-nine-cent dollar for the farmer. Nix! 
Arkville, N. Y. h. b. c. 
R. N.-Y.—Here we have more of that “vain repeti¬ 
tion of an economic fallacy.” While we are at it sup¬ 
pose we print the above diagram now being printed 
in the Pacific Coast papers. 
The following note goes with it: 
The orange grower gets 26.7% of the “consumer’s 
dollar,” after picking, packing and hauling expenses are 
paid. According to Mr. II. M. Gilbert’s investigations, 
the apple grower, when the consumer pays $3 per box, 
gets 26 1-3% ; when the consumer pays $2.25 per box, 
the apple grower gets 26 2-3%. After deducting the 
cost of picking, packing and hauling, the apple grower 
gets 16 1-3% of the consumer’s price of $3, and 13 2-3% 
of the consumer’s price of $2.25. Why the difference? 
The Lancaster, Penn., City Market. 
The Lancaster, Pa., city markets present an inter¬ 
esting sight at present—to the buyer—-not the seller. 
For once the grower selling direct to the consumer, is 
realizing very little for his labors. There are several 
causes, primarily an unusual amount of rainfall dur¬ 
ing the entire growing season to date. All manner 
of vegetation is making a remarkable growth, and all 
crops that have been kept reasonably free from weeds 
are much better than usual. Sweet corn this early in 
season is offered as low as eight cents per dozen ears, 
large cauliflower five cents per head and less, potatoes 
50 to 70 cents per bushel. Cabbage, beans, beets, 
onions, almost anything we can get, with large amounts 
each week hauled home for want of a market at any 
price. 
Tomatoes are being sold at almost any price, and 
the main early crop is not coming in the market yet on 
account of the cool wet season. It is quite probable 
that a condition like this could be improved greatly 
by haying a county bureau of selling, or some co¬ 
operative association that could get in touch with mar¬ 
kets in other cities, and ship some of this surplus out 
Wants a Trial of the Auction. 
I am much interested in your efforts to establish an 
auction system for apples, hoping it might be extended 
to include my own principal product, potatoes. It 
seems to me that the auction system is peculiarly 
adapted to semi-perishable products like oranges, ap¬ 
ples and potatoes. Of course the whole system of 
buying and selling grain, both spot and futures, is one 
of continuous auction. Speculators might depress prices 
at auctions as they do on the Board of Trade but auc¬ 
tions would be far better than the present system pro¬ 
vided a large enough proportion of the crops was auc¬ 
tioned. 
An auction would be of particular advantage to es¬ 
tablish prices for high-grade articles. Even when the 
prices of common stock are well known it is hard to 
know the value of anything superior. Unless one 
spends a lot of time and trouble in keeping posted a 
commission man is liable at any time to make a fake 
sale at about the price for common stock. In this sec¬ 
tion it is easy to sell 20 cars, of potatoes in a very short 
time over the ’phone if offered at a cent below the mar¬ 
ket. Most of the stock here is about the same, and 
every dealer expects to get about the same grade. I 
have been 10 years in improving the quality of my 
carlot shipments in every way possible. Each car is 
of one variety, from which all mixtures and all strains 
of coarse, poorly-shaped or small tubers have been re¬ 
moved by a careful system of selection of the best hills 
for seed when digging. Thorough spraying gives fine 
cooking quality by preventing premature ripening and 
rot. Other diseases are prevented by disinfection of 
seed before planting and by the seed selection. The 
distances apart of the hills in the rows are carefully 
studied to get just the right size of tubers most in de¬ 
mand by the market. Such shipments are scarce, par¬ 
ticularly of New York State stock. Yet it is harder 
to get what these potatoes are worth than to raise 
them. 
Farmers are often bitterly attacked by city news¬ 
papers and misguided scientific men for selling dirty 
milk, stale eggs, wormy apples, short-staple cotton and 
coarse potatoes. Were either the critics or the con¬ 
sumers placed on the farms they would do exactly the 
same thing. Present systems too often fail to pay the 
producer of a good article for the increased cost over 
that of a poor one. Of course farmers produce what 
they can make in the largest quantity, in the shortest 
time, and at the least expense; in short, that which 
pays the best. If farmers knew that they would be 
sure of a paying price for clean milk, fresh eggs, sound 
apples, longer-staple cotton or potatoes of good quality 
there would be no necessity for consumers to complain 
of any lack of either. For example I raise a fine qual- 
Jty of potatoes, because I now have a reputation by 
which I can get prices averaging five to 15 cents above 
the usual prices for “States.” To do this I have to be 
in two separate businesses at the same time. It is 
harder work to keep posted on the markets than to raise 
the potatoes. Any system by which a shipment of any 
kind will have a fair chance to be sold for its actual 
value without the necessity of watching commission 
men as well as the markets will be heartily favored bv 
Tioga Co., N. Y. daniel dean. 
New York State News. 
FRUIT CAR ON CENTRAL.—August 2 the N. Y. 
Central will start a demonstration car at Milton, Ul¬ 
ster Co., which will be run to ltavena then back to 
I oughkeepsie whence it will leave on August 3 for its 
trip up-State, and across State, making its last sched¬ 
uled stop at Westfield, August 21. During the stops 
there will be illustrated talks on the problems of the 
fruit grower, as transportation, distribution, market¬ 
ing, etc. There will be on board the car properly 
packed barrels of fruit of the various grades recog¬ 
nized by the law. 
STATE FRUIT GROWERS.—The Summer meet¬ 
ing of the State Fruit Growers’ association will be held 
nt Geneva on August 6. There will be addresses by 
Commissioner Wilson, Dr. Jordan, Commissioner Dii- 
lon, Profs. Hedrick, Parrott and others. The following 
day there will be a demonstration of farm tractors and 
apple graders, and excursions will be made to orchards 
iu the vicinity. 
GAME LAW CONVICTIONS.—The State conser¬ 
vation commission has begun 367 actions against vio¬ 
lators of the game laws during the past month through¬ 
out the State. Of these 352 were won by the Commis¬ 
sion and the total amount recovered was $5,441.85. 
The game protectors in each division meet once a month 
at Albany and report on their respective divisions. 
The cutting and stacking of swamp grass in several 
parts of the Adirondacks has been authorized to carry 
deer through the hard part of the Winter and in other 
sections Alfalfa will be provided. 
PROPOSED NEW CONSERVATION COMMIS¬ 
SION.—The committee on conservation of the constitu¬ 
tional convention has reported, or soon will report, to the 
convention a proposition for a commission to consist 
of nine unpaid members, each to serve a term of nine 
years, one to be appointed by the Governor from each 
of the judicial districts of the State. The nine members 
are to appoint a superintendent who will be the execu¬ 
tive head. 
MILK PRODUCERS ORGANIZE.—The Central N. 
Y. Milk Producers’ Association was recently organ¬ 
ized at Oneida, the capitalization being $2,000, in 
shares of $5 each. A cheese factory will be erected at 
Oneida Castle which will also be a milk shipping sta¬ 
tion when milk is not used for cheese making. All 
surplus milk will be converted into butter and cheese. 
COUNTY FAIR BOYS’ CAMP.—The first boys’ 
camp at a country fair that has come to our attention 
will be established at the coming Columbia County 
Fair. The boys will be selected by the supervisors of 
each town or ward in the county and will go into camp 
at the fair grounds in the same manner as at the State 
Fair camp. They will be shown about the exhibits by 
competent men and thus the fair will be made for them 
a valuable educational exhibit along agricultural lines. 
