THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Review of the Auction Markets. 
RECENT PRICES.—The auction market had about 
15 cars of State fruit last week, consisting of apples, 
pears, plums, peaches and grapes. Apples ranged in 
prices from $1.50 to $4 a barrel, according to quality. 
McIntosh sold up to $4 ; and Gravensteins from $2.50 
to $3.50. In large baskets both these varieties sold 
up to S5 and 95 cents a basket—about three-quarters of 
a bushel. Wealthy brought $2.50 to $3.25. Pears cold 
from $3 to $5.50 a barrel; plums from 11 to 27 cents 
for a small basket. Peaches sold from 62% to 75 
cents for the bushel basket; and Elberta of fair quality 
and condition in Jersey baskets from 25 to 45 cents a 
basket. 
PEACH SALES.—We never had a bigger crop of 
peaches than this year, yet after the auction sales 
began in New York, there was never better distribu¬ 
tion, and less peaches dumped, or less refused in the 
terminals. Though the volume sent the auction was 
comparatively small, it was enough to keep the com¬ 
mission dealers on the jump and on good behavior. 
To keep large volumes from the auction they had to 
return every cent and in some cases it was said that 
even more than the actual sale was returned to hold 
shippers. If the auction could have had one-half the 
fruit, the distribution would have been still better and 
prices could have been improved by the larger con¬ 
sumption. If the auction sales ever stop, the commis¬ 
sion dealers will have a lot to make up. 
EFFECT OF POOR FRUIT.—Last Tuesday the 
auction had a car of Greening apples containing 118 
barrels. Three barrels were taken out of the car at 
random, and displayed as samples. The whole car 
was sold on the showing of the samples. Two of these 
barrels were a good grade of fruit all through the 
barrels. The third was equally good on top, but six 
inches down were a lot of small, under-size, discolored 
apples, not fit for B grade in either size nor color. 
Buyers had to guess how many of such apples were in 
the car. Had not these culls appeared the apples 
would have sold for $3 to $3.25. They sold for $2.50 
and $2.45. That peck of culls in that one barrel cost 
the growers at least 50 cents a barrel for the whole 
car. 
STORAGE.—There is some cold storage space now 
in New York. The warehouses say first come first 
served. If you want any tell the Department how 
much to reserve for you, but do not ship for storage 
until advised that the space is engaged. We can also 
get considerable space on the Erie road at Elmira and 
in Rochester and Middleport. 
COMMISSION MEN AND PRICES.—Is it any 
wonder the commission dealers are mad? In August 
they told you through the trade press that grade B 
would be $1.50 and grade A $2 maximum per barrel 
for this year. At the same time The R. N.-Y. said 
the A grade would be worth $2.75 to $3; and B grade 
$2 to $2.25. Then came the orchard auction sales and 
prices went Tiie R. N.-Y. just a bit better. But the 
dealers have other cause for anger. Other years they 
bought on secret contracts, and having secured a supply 
they preferred to keep the market to themselves. If a 
grower ventured to ship afterwards, he got a lesson 
on the first shipment that was sufficient for himself and 
his neighbors for the whole season. He shipped no 
more. There was then little or no competition with 
the dealer in the market, and he could charge con¬ 
sumers what he liked. The retail price was often five 
to ten times the price paid the farmer. This year the 
Department of Foods and Markets maintains an open 
auction market where any grower may sell his apples 
to the highest bidder in competition with the dealer’s 
apples. Isn’t that enough to make a dealer angry? 
VALUE OF HIGHER PRICE.—This year we have 
4,000,000 barrels of apples in New York State. If the 
auction sales increased the price 75 cents a barrel, the 
gain to growers would be $3,000,000. If 50 cents, $2,- 
000,000. If 25 cents, the gain is $1,000,000. Anyway 
it was worth while. 
CHANGE OF ADDRESS.—To be right in the heart 
of the wholesale produce trade, the Department of 
Foods and Markets has moved to 204 Franklin Street, 
New Y'ork City. It is in the building with the auction 
rooms and the Fruit Auction Company. Anything 
good to eat and put up in packages—not bulk—may 
now be shipped to the department and sold at auction. 
These two concerns form the strongest selling agency 
in the country for the sale of farm produce. 
PRICE STANDARDS.—Already the auction sales 
are setting the city prices for apples. Local buyers wait 
to see what the auction prices are before they buy. 
When obliged to buy sooner, they base the price to 
be paid on the auction sales. If the dealer should re¬ 
fuse these terms, the local buyer would go to the auc¬ 
tion. These local buyers do not sulk. They must have 
fruit for people to eat. They go where they can get it 
and they are mighty glad to have a second source of 
supply. They like the auction because they know what 
their competitor on the next block pays as well as 
what they pay themselves. It standardizes prices 
again and having bought their own supply, they are 
going to bid to make the competitor pay as much as 
their own price. The auction sale is the shippers’ 
salvation. 
CALIFORNIA GRAPES.—The heaviest receipt of 
California grapes for the season arrived last week. 
Prices went as low as 80 cents for 20-pound boxes of 
choice Tokay and Malaga. In consequence the prices 
for State grapes were also very low, running as low 
as 1% to two cents a pound. California was sending 
as high as 100 cars a day. Last week being the heavi¬ 
est for California shipments, the market on State 
grapes should improve from now on. 
APPLE PRICES.—While only fancy or A grades 
will bring high prices there is a good demand now for 
all grades of sound merchantable apples. No apples 
should be allowed to waste this year. Keep the new 
address of the Foods and Markets Department in mind 
—204 Franklin St., New York. 
Development of the Auction System. 
If we are to judge by its press, the produce trade 
in New York City is in a state of hysterical consterna¬ 
tion. Late last week the news was published that not 
a single bid was made for the apples offered at four 
Central New York orchard auction sales, and that in¬ 
stead of falling on their knees to the sulking buyers 
who have been roaming the orchards all Fall, the 
growers agreed among themselves to hold the apples 
and ship them to New York City to be sold at auction, 
under the supervision of the Department of Foods 
and Markets. Published with this report was an in¬ 
terview with Commissioner Dillon in which he said in 
part: 
The 50,000 barrels of apples from Central New York 
will not be shipped in one lot, but will move in given 
quantities in regular shipments and all will be sold 
at auction in New York. If the dealers and buyers 
refuse to buy at an open market and standardize prices, 
I will put the apples into the retail stores in Greater 
New York without their going through the hands of a 
dealer. This movement for the sale of apples at auc¬ 
tion is a farmer’s proposition and not one of the State. 
The State is only helping the farmer. They are or¬ 
ganizing and the work along this line has just begun. 
The farmers have the apples and the people want them. 
They and this Department have no desire to disturb' 
the general methods of distributing apples. The dealers 
have had the first chance to buy them in the orchards 
at public sale. They will have the first chance to buy 
the apples in the open market at the city auctions. 
If, however, the dealers refuse to buy the apples in the 
orchard and at the city auctions, I propose to find a 
way of getting the apples into the hands of the con¬ 
sumer without a dealer touching them. 
The alarm that the above declaration created in the 
ranks of the commission dealers may be judged from 
the accompanying editorial in the same paper. Listen 
to this: 
We believe it is high time that the merchants whose 
business already is being injured, and will be wholly 
ruined in the event of the Commissioner’s success, take 
serious note of this matter. In our opinion, the day 
for dismissing the Commissioner with a pooh-pooh has 
passed. Even should his far-reaching schemes as out¬ 
lined be doomed to failure, the attempt to carry them 
out within the next 30 days will constitute a serious 
disturbance of business conditions. 
Is the State of New York legally going in the whole¬ 
sale merchandise business? Does the statute creating 
the Commissioner’s office give him authority to com¬ 
mit the State to merchandise? In short, is it legal to 
use the taxpayers’ money against a very considerable 
body of the taxpayers themselves? 
Is it not time that these questions were thrashed out 
before the courts and permanently decided? Why not 
go before a judge and ask for an injunction restraining 
the Commissioner from further activity, until the con¬ 
stitutionality of his powers and the legality of his 
actions are officially adjudicated? We believe that pro¬ 
duce merchants of New York ought to take this mat¬ 
ter under serious consideration. 
Did men ever make themselves more ridiculous? 
They started out by publishing that $2 a barrel would 
be the high price for apples to the grower this year. 
They bought as low as 90 cents, and in no case offered 
more than $2. Before they had time for organized op¬ 
position these orchard auction sales were held; and the 
price established at $2.75 up to $3.40 per barrel by 
independent buyers, who were called pikers and traitors 
by the old dealers. By the time the next four sales 
were held, they had time to bring pressure to bear, and 
not a single bid was made at any of the four sales, 
though buyers were on the ground. Now they are to 
have one more opportunity to buy the apples at public 
auction in New York, and if they refuse again to bid 
for them the apples will be sold direct to the small 
grocer at first cost, through properly organized agen¬ 
cies. No dealer will need to touch them. One hundred 
thousand farmers in the State approve the plan. Thirty 
thousand dealers want the fruit this way. Ten mil¬ 
lion consumers hail the innovation with delight. But 
two or three hundred commission dealers say it must 
not be. They will ask the court to refuse to let New 
York people eat apples until it passes through their 
hands on their own terms and in a way that no one 
can know what the real price is, or ought to be. 
Farmers want to elevate the sale of apples to the dig¬ 
nity of a business. The courts are now to be invoked to 
maintain the traffic on the basis of a vested personal 
right. Nothing short of desperation could suggest such 
a proceeding. 
The commission dealers and food speculators are 
fooling themselves. Neither the producer nor consumer 
is at all dependent on them, and least of all the 
farmer. The dealers have an opportunity to perform 
a useful economic service. If they would work on a 
fair basis, open and aboveboard in daylight, they could 
take the food product from the farm and take it to 
the grocers for distribution to the consumer, and per¬ 
form a real service. Even the supposedly respectable and 
honest element of the trade prefer to sulk rather than 
buy and sell in the open where prices and grades are 
standardized. They have their privilege, but they 
must not be surprised if people refused to go hungry, 
and get their food supply through other hands. Numer- 
1225 
ons farm organizations are already selling the produce 
of their members direct, and it is the simplest thing 
in the world for apple growers to furnish a steady 
supply and put their fruit directly into the hands of 
retailers. The conviction that it can be done is re¬ 
sponsible for the admonition to the dealers that it is 
no longer safe to pooh-pooh the Commissioner. 
The New York Cherry Business. 
I note a paragraph in a recent issue concerning cher¬ 
ries in Wayne County, N. Y., and would like more in¬ 
formation regarding the manner in which the industry 
is handled there. Sour cherries are being raised here 
quite extensively, there being about 4,000 or 5,000 acres 
set out, of which only a very small amount is in full 
bearing. About 100 carloads of fruit were shipped out 
during the past season, but there is no local canning 
so far. Can you advise what price growers receive 
for cherries from the canning factories? How is the 
picking handled and how much is paid for picking? 
We pay 1% cent per quart, and all fruit is shipped 
in 16-quart cases, for which we receive $1.15 to $1.25 
f.o.b. our station. How does this price compare with 
New York canning prices? b. j. 
Sturgeon Bay, Wis. 
The canning factories are a most important factor in 
the disposition of the immense sour cherry crop of this 
section. The factories now are located in every cherry 
section, and in the Lake Ontario district one every five 
or six miles can be found. This season, which could 
hardly be called an average one, the factories paid from 
3% to four cents per pound for the fruit. Usually this 
price would be called a trifle low, as for many seasons 
the factory price has ruled around five cents or better. 
This year, however, an immense crop favored Western 
New York and every grower having trees had a crop. 
For harvesting the fruit the growers pay from three- 
fourths of a cent to one cent per pound, according to 
the age and size of the tree. Most of the trees can bo 
reached by a small step-ladder, such as could be easily 
handled by a woman. On most of the larger tracts 
containing large blocks of young trees a straight three- 
fourths of a cent rate prevailed. At this rate one with 
nimble hands can make good daily wages during the 
season. When shipped to any distance the eight-pound 
basket is commonly used in express forwardings. Thei’e 
have been instances here this year where such ship¬ 
ments netted from 40 to 60 cents per basket. One 
prominent grower released the bulk of his crop in 
express lots, netting nearly four cents per pound for 
the season’s production. There has been some talk 
of handling the fruit in the frozen state, this condi¬ 
tion continuing until l-eceived by the confectionery and 
baking interests, but as yet the idea is thought to be 
in its infancy. It would prove utterly unadaptable 
where the goods were to lie around out of refrigeration 
before being used. a. h. p. 
New York State News. 
THE PUBLIC MARKET IN OLEAN.—A good 
many cities have tried in one way or another the pub¬ 
lic market experiment with varying success. Olcan i 3 
one of the cities that has made the experiment a suc¬ 
cess. Some 17 years ago the city tried the plan of a 
public curb market but it was a failure largely because 
no effort was made to interest the producers and the 
housewives. That matter was attended to at the outset 
this time, the public markets of some of the larger cities 
were studied and about a year ago an active campaign 
was started to interest producers within a radius of 
15 miles, and this being done and the committee being 
assured that it would have plenty of produce on hand 
for sale, the market question was taken up with the 
housewives. It was on August 15 of this year that the 
scheme was launched with 17 producers on the curb. 
The next morning there were 43 and the third morn¬ 
ing 57 who came out in a downpour of rain. The plan 
has grown in favor and attendance every market day 
and on Saturday of about two weeks ago 120 producers 
backed their wagons upon the market and furnished 
produce to over 4,000 buyers. Market mornings are 
Wednesday and Saturday from 8.30 to 10.30. The lo¬ 
cal Chamber of Commerce and the Farm Bureau are 
to be credited with the establishment of this public 
enterprise. 
1IOP GROWERS QUIT THE BUSINESS.—It is 
said that more than three-fourths of the hop growers of 
Central New York who have been in the business of 
hop growing for some years back have gone out of the 
business within the past year or two. Many more will 
follow this year. It is stated that in two towns 250 
acres were not harvested this year because they were 
not worth it and several hundred acres more that 
were picked were scarcely worth the labor. This does 
not mean, however, that none made the business pay. 
It would seem that those who were willing to go to 
the expense and trouble of spraying will find the busi¬ 
ness not altogether unprofitable but many preferred to 
take a chance on the weather and with the insects and 
did not spray and, hence, had no crop. One man who 
has grown hops from boyhood let his entire crop of 
fifty acres hang on the vines where the blue and black 
mold had hit them so hard that they were practically 
worthless. Ou the other hand another grower har¬ 
vested one of the largest crops on record in that sec¬ 
tion but he attended to the business of spraying. 
A. J. C. C. FEES NOT TO BE CHANGED.—A 
proposition has been submitted to a mail vote this Sum¬ 
mer as to reducing the fee for membership in the club 
to $50. It has been $100. The constitution of the club 
requires that three-fourths of the members voting must 
approve such a change but the vote was as follows: 
Against, 219. In favor, 145. Number not voting 190. 
Consequently no change will be made. 
CATTLE AMPHITHEATRE.—Work will be begun 
soon on a $3,000 amphitheatre to be used in judging 
cattle on the Syracuse University stock farm. The 
structure will be enclosed and will have a seating 
capacity of 700 or 800 persons. There will be a large 
show ring in the center for demonstration purposes in 
connection with the animal husbandry department of 
the college of agriculture. Two recent gifts amounting 
to $26,000 from Mrs. Russell Sage, will be used for 
farm improvements and for laboratory equipment. 
J. W. D. 
