THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1329 
Report of Fruit Auction. 
The following report of the auction sales of fruit 
in New York City, for the last week, under the sup¬ 
ervision of the Department of Foods and Markets, is the 
first and only full, accurate and reliable report of the 
total sale of New York State produce by any one re¬ 
ceiver in this city during the entire history of the pro¬ 
duce business. No produce paper or price current 
would dare make such a complete and accurate report 
of the sales of one of the large commission houses of 
the city. No publisher of a paper or price current 
could get such reports of sales from the commission 
dealer, even if he wanted to publish them. 
It should be borne in mind that the Department was 
devised by the farm organizations of the State through 
their authorized committees to establish an economic 
system of fruit distribution, and that the system is 
in process of development. Nobody claims that it is 
perfect. Nobody insists that one system of selling 
must supersede all others. Everybody knows that the 
old disorganized custom of selling farm food products, 
which has grown up during the last 50 years, is 
chaotic, wasteful, expensive, and often dishonest and 
villainous. Nobody expected or expects to supersede 
that system and to perfect a new one in the course 
of a few weeks or months, or years for that matter. 
The trade papers, in their efforts to discredit the work 
of the Department are simply proving the viciousness 
of the old system which they previously insisted did 
not exist. For example, last week they made a great 
outcry because, as they alleged, fruit had been sold 
through the auction to dealers who again sold it to 
other dealers at advances from 20 to 40 cents above 
the auction price. As yet we do not know whether 
these allegations are true or false. We suspect that 
the advances are exaggerated, but we do know that this 
system of speculation has existed, and still continues 
in the commission produce trade of the City of New 
York. It is handed from one speculator to another, 
each taking his toll and expense from it and the con¬ 
sumer has to pay the whole burden when the goods 
reach him. Incidentally, consumption is restricted and 
the producers suffer in consequence of the small consump¬ 
tion as well as from the manipulations of the wholesale 
market. The Department certainly has not been able 
to reform this vicious system in six weeks. It never 
expected to do it in that time. It is, however, making 
a beginning, and the mere fact that the old system is 
fighting it so strenuously, is proof enough that they 
see and know that it will be successful in reforming 
the produce business, if allowed proper time for its 
development. A number of the large retail distributors 
and chain stores like James Butler, Park & Tilford, 
Acker, Merrall & Condit, Daniel Reeves and other re¬ 
tail chain stores and individual distributors attend the 
auction sales daily, buy when the quality of fruit suits 
them, and some of them are selling it at not to exceed 
15 to 20 per cent, above the price paid the farmer. 
This has never before been known in the history of the 
trade in New York City. It is true, that as yet it has 
reached small proportions, but it has wonderful possi¬ 
bilities for the future. Last year our investigations 
showed that apples wholesaling at $1.50 to $2, retailed 
at not less than $7 to $20 per barrel. It is some change 
when large retailers distribute this year at an advance 
of over 40 cents on a $2 barrel. Moreover the auction 
system can sell on five per cent, commission, and cash 
the account and makes no charge for cartage except 
where cartage actually takes place. Commission houses 
protest that they cannot exist on that basis, and they 
are right. 
We are printing exact sales of the last week so 
that growers and shippers may know exactly what the 
condition of the city market has been. Whether it will 
be better or worse in the future can only be surmised. 
It will be observed that careful packers, like Henry 
Marquand, of Bedford Hills, and George T. Powell of 
Ghent, and others of the same class, receive high prices 
for good quality, carefully graded fruit. Mr. Powell’s car 
netted $439.25 and Mr. Marquand’s smaller car netted 
him $360.45. Both of them had their checks within 30 
hours from the date of the time of sale. Other grow¬ 
ers do not expect and cannot expect to get the prices 
realized by these experienced growers and careful 
packers unless they raise equally good fruit and pack 
with equal care. The bulk of fruit sent to the De¬ 
partment has not been so good. It was ungraded and 
unclassified and yet is good fruit for the plain people 
to eat, and they are very glad to have it. When the 
New York market offers better prices for such medium 
goods than the farmer can get at home, then it is wise 
to send it to New York. If he can get more at home 
or in other markets, of course, it should never come 
to New York, to any auction market, or other market. 
The purpose of the Department is not to encourage 
large volumes of shipments to New Y r ork markets when 
the price there does not justify the shipment. As the 
work develops the Department should have means of 
assembling a line of information that would enable it 
to advise growers where the best market demand is and 
it hopes to have agencies representing growers in the 
various markets throughout the country for the sale of 
such New York State produce, either by auction sale 
or private sale as the conditions warrant, so that pro¬ 
ducers of the State may always have information and 
facilities to market their produce at the best possible 
advantage. No department and no system can do more. 
Growers should not be satisfied with less, and it might 
be well to say here, that plans are maturing for put¬ 
ting this system in active operation and with the en¬ 
dorsement and support of the farmers of the State it 
can and will be adopted. 
If the allegations that fruit is bought by dealers and 
speculated in from hand to hand before it reaches the 
consumer, be true of the auction sales, as we know 
that it is of the commission sales, the indictment is 
on the old system and not on the Department that is 
trying through publicity and other means, to break up 
that system of speculation. As stated above, the specu¬ 
lation has been eliminated by some retailers and the 
publicity that the city press, and now the trade press, 
is giving the matter, is the surest means of arousing 
the people of the city and State to rise up and overthrow 
such a system of plunder as the trade press now admits 
is the general custom of the trade. 
During the last week three produce dealers of the city 
failed in the aggregate amount of $105,000, which they 
owed the commission houses. This was possible be¬ 
cause of the reckless system of credits that the com¬ 
mission houses give in order to maintain the system of 
speculative distribution that now exists. If the whole 
business were put on a cash basis as the auction sales 
have established, these failures could never occur, and 
the old system of plundering the producer could never 
exist. They extend the credit to irresponsible job¬ 
bers in order to maintain the system, but every cent of 
that $105,000 must come out of the pockets of the pro¬ 
ducers and the consumers, and commission dealers nev¬ 
er did and never can make up such loss on a five per 
cent, commission for the sale of farm produce in the 
City of New York. And yet it must be made up. How 
do they get it? Moreover, they have maintained an 
expensive system of delivery in the City of New York, 
that is a disgrace to a civilized community. In want 
of proper facilities, even the auction market is obliged 
to make charges for cartage and handling of sample? 
and labor that would have no place in a properly or¬ 
ganized terminal market. The saving on these items, 
alone, would pay a large percentage of profit on the 
capital necessary to establish the market, and yet the 
old produce dealers have fought the suggestion of the 
establishment of such a terminal market by the De¬ 
partment. 
The city commission dealers have their own sins, but 
they have one merit. They are frank. For the most 
part, they stand out boldly as the enemy of the. pro¬ 
ducer, and confess to make out of the traffic what it 
will bear. They fight reform in the open. They have, 
however, throughout the country districts, open and 
secret agents in the form of local dealers, and some¬ 
times railroad employees, who act as baiters to the 
commission dealers and by pretending a friendship and 
an interest in their neighbors on the farm secure ship¬ 
ment for their employers in the city. These are the 
most vicious and dangerous enemies that the pro¬ 
ducer has, and if the producer is laboring under any 
delusion that these men are looking out for the pro¬ 
ducers’ interest,_ and willing to develop a better sys¬ 
tem of distribution, the producer may as well disabuse 
himself of that fallacy. There may be exceptions among 
them, we hope there are, but the rule itself is a reality 
nevertheless. 
The sales for three days last week were as follows: 
APPLES.—From Henry Marquand, 40 boxes Green¬ 
ing. $1.15; 10 King, $1.15; 35 bbls. Gi’eening, $2.55; 35, 
$2.25; 54 Baldwin, $2.20; 41, $1.60. The buyers have 
since made a request for more of the above pack and 
expressed willingness to pay more. Four bkts. Rome 
Beauty, 40 cents; 160 Greening, $2.50; 13 bbls. Falla- 
water, from Dr. A. J. Frantz, $2.45; 7 Baldwin, $2.70; 
9 Henry Sweet, $2.85; 7 Greening, $2.30; 4, $1.80; 5 
Spy, $1.80; 1 mixed, $2.20; 1 keg crabapples, $1.70; 
3 bbls. Sutton from Geo. T. Powell, $3.45; 31, $3; 10, 
$3.10; 36, $2.70; 24 Jonathan, $4.10; 34, $3.30; 1 
THE' fcntCACQ ClAfLV TftIBUNg 
and Brains 
It doesn’t make any difference 
how good an equipment of gray maf- 
hl jou’r* Jot, TOO can't do good work ■£ 
r Li,!»*■» 
To get rid of a bad liver some 
people consult specialists and hike to 
•anitirium. And mu go to th* Spring' and 
Mki IhiK. nlwnl _.• .... mi*. ....... __ 
But the best antidote in the 
wrid-lnfltr than »TT ft»c drugsyr wtwi hwr—» 
You may have tried baked 
■pplr* before, but until you've had one at 
P*T***?‘* "bat "akad Arrlaaara Ilk* 
Eat Thompson's*Baked Apples 
every day and you'll have dearer ay ea, nimbler 
»H. kea*af^ brain. Cal , «.!,/ A,,I.. ,m.J 
Looi hi lAu PURE FOOD SIGN— 
Newtown, $3.50; 5, $3; 5, $.70; 1, $1.85; 3 Pomeroy 
$2.35 ; 3 Winesap, $3.30; 7, $2.10; 100 Baldwin, $1.60; 
Blush, $3.10; 5 Spy, $1.55; 5 Jonathan, $3.30; 3 Spy 
$2.40; 4 Baldwin, $1.35; 2 Ben Davis, $1.65; 1 Spy 
$1; 1 Mixed, $1.45; 6 bbls. crabapples, $2.60; 1 Bald 
win, $2.15; 1 Greening, $2.55; 1 Spy, $3; 1 Sweet 
$2.20; 1 Russet, $1.60; 2 Maiden Blush, $1.55; : 
$2.15; 6 Baldwin, $2.65; 1 
2 McIntosh, $3; 2, $2.95; 2 
$1.75; 3 Vandervere, $2; 1 
4, $1.30; 1 King, $1.00; 6 
Baldwin. $1.60 
Snow, $3.10; ' 
Bellflower, $1.15; 1 Spy, 
Spy, $3.20; 1 Spy, $1.90; 
$2.50; 5, Peek Pleasant, 
$1.60 ; 6 Baldwin, $1.60; 
$1.50; 1, $1.40; 2 Greening, $2.25; 6 
1 Mixed, $1.25; 1 Mixed, $1.20; 4 
King, $3.40; 2, $3.50; 4 Jonathan’Sweet, $2; 11 Bale 
win, cloth top, $1.35; 1 Lemon Pippin, $1.40; 2 Sp\ 
$1.20; 7 Spy, $3.75; 5 Spy, $4; 6 Golden Pippir 
$1.50; 5 Greening, $1.10; 2 King, $1.75; 1 Snow, S3 
3 Greening, $2.65; 1, $2.05; 2, $2.40; 1, $2.30; £ 
$2.05; 5 Pelican, $1.80; 1 King, $3.20; 2, $2.90; 
Greening, $1.15; 16 Spy, 95 cents; 28 Baldwin, 8 
cents; 3 Greening, 65 cents; 5 King, 95 cents; 1 Mixec 
65 cents; Blush, 75 cents; 5 Spy, $3.S5; 5, $3.80; 4 
$3.40; 12, $2.10; 5 Snow, $3.90; 1, $3.30 
1 Greening, $2.55; 1, $1.75; 2 Baldwin, $2.15 
2 Talman, $2.85; 15 Baldwin, $2.65; 26, $2.55 
23, $2; 8 Spy, $3.25; 9, $2.55; 27, $1.55; 
Greening, $1.95; 3 Seek, $1.85; 1 Mixed, $1.70; 
Mixed, $1.30; 2 Ben Davis, $2.15; 4, $1.65; 7, $1.35 
1, $1.40; 2 Greening, $2.30; 1, $1.90; 2, $1.60; 1 
$1.60; 1 Wagener, $3.45; 2, $3.05; 1. $1.80; 1 Swee 
Greening, $2.60; 10 King, $2.80 
2, $1.80; 1 Seek, $2; 4 Greening 
Cranberry Pippin, $2.95; 2, $2.25 
1, $1.55; 1 Ben Davis, $3.10; 1 
Baldwin, $1.90; 13, $1.60. 
Russet, $1.50; 12 
1 Baldwin, $2.25; 
$1.80; 3, $1.55; 1 
1 Talman, $2.15; 
Greening, $1.55; 7 
PEACHES.—216 bu. bkts. Elberta, from Chas. W. 
Wilber, 6214 cents; 34, 14-qt. Rolf, 30 cents; 119 plain, 
20 cents; 36 Smock, 2714- 
PEARS.—7 bbls. Kieffer, $1.70, 9 Kieffer, $1.85; 6 
Bose, $3.50; 13 bu. bkts. Kieffer 55 cents. 
GRAPES.—661 trays Concord, $35 to $37 per ton; 
625 trays, $36; 31 4-lb. bkts. Concord, six cents; 38 
Niagara, five cents. 
EGGS.—4 cases at 48 cents; 3 cases at 50 cents; 1 
case at 54 cents; 2 cases at 57 cents. 
MISCELLANEOUS.—3 bu.-bkts. quinces, $1.55; 1 
quinces, 80 cents; 24 bkts. peppers, 40 cents; 114 bkts. 
32% to 35 cents; 1 sack onions, 95 cents; 2 sacks, 
$1.10; 4 crates celery (15 dozen in each) $1.65. 
The above quotations will be a guide to shippers, 
the first real guide they ever had. If the New York 
market changes for the bad, future prices will not be 
so good; if it improves, as we think it will for good 
grades of apples, then prices will be better. The De¬ 
partment can only sell at market, and make sure 
that the shipper gets his money for the full price. We 
would like to hear from growers who sold last week 
through commission houses. Did you get more or less? 
“ Baked Apples and Brains.” 
We give below a reproduction of a full page advertise¬ 
ment which recently appeared in the Chicago Tribune. 
It was printed on Apple Day. This advertisement meas¬ 
ured 17x22 inches, and must have cost at least $1,000 for 
a single insertion. It just goes to show how the apple 
business has developed in the last few years. The writer 
still remembers how he first organized the “Apple 
Consumers’ League.” It was about 20 years ago that 
he called for a baked apple in a well-known New York 
restaurant. The waiter went out to the kitchen and 
came back with the report: 
“We ain’t got no apple.” 
It came to us all at once that here was an opportunity 
to do some missionary work, so we made quite an outcry 
about the fact that this restaurant, supposed to he high 
class, did not even furnish baked apples. The waiter 
went off, and very soon the manager, a large, dignified 
man, came walking down through the room. 
“I hope there is nothing wrong with the food,” he said. 
Then we went after him again about his failure to have 
baked apples on his bill of fare. A dozen men nearby 
entered into the spirit of the thing and added their pro¬ 
test. The next day he had baked apples and cream writ¬ 
ten into his bill of fare in red ink, and every man who 
made the protest ordered one. It proved very popular 
with the guests. A few days later the manager came 
again and asked what variety of apple he ought to buy. 
He said people were calling for apples so freely that he 
saw he had a good thing in prospect, and as he put it, 
he wanted “an apple with a name,” so that he could 
always have the same quality. We took pleasure in tell¬ 
ing him how to avoid a Ben Davis, and how to find a 
Spitzenburg or a Greening. Shortly after he told us 
that his sales of baked apples had reached between four 
and five barrels a week, and it proved one of the most 
popular dishes on his table. That experience was 
what started the Apple Consumers’ League. A little 
band of us got together and agreed to call for apple 
at every public table whenever we had a meal. The 
idea spread, first as a joke, and then as a serious ad¬ 
vertising proposition, and without question this Apple 
Consumers’ League has doubled the consumption of 
city apples during the past 10 years, and its work has 
only begun. It seems remarkable in view of that old 
experience to find that we have now come to the point 
where a restaurant keeper can afford to pay $1,000 for 
a single advertisement in which he tells the evident 
truth that baked apples and brains go together. 
An Apple-day Cartoon. 
AN APPLE SHOW.—There never was a time when 
the apple men of the country were doing so much to 
advertise their fruit. In places where fruit shows 
were never heard of before, people are now holding 
very successful exhibitions. A very good display was 
held in St. Johns, Michigan, October 4th to 14th. The 
merchants and the housewives of the city cooperated 
in promoting this show, and the fruit growers on their 
part brought in a fine display. The show was so suc¬ 
cessful that an organization has been formed to put 
up a better one next year. They are all bent on 
advertising the fruit possibilities of that section, and it 
is a fine thing to do. The show combined an exhibition 
of fruit, a good many excellent talks on fruit grow¬ 
ing, and also sales. A number of excellent orchards 
were sold during the show, and a good trade developed 
at retail. The whole thing was a great success, and 
ought to be copied in every section where fruit grow¬ 
ing is a feature. 
DISTRIBUTING CULLS.—Fort Wayne, Indiana, 
has had an experience in handling apples which is 
well worthy of imitation. It was found that a large 
number of poor families in that city were unable to 
buy apples of any grade. Within a short distance of 
the city hundreds of bushels of apples were rotting on 
the ground. These were mainly windfalls. They could 
not be sold as high-grade fruit, and yet they had ex¬ 
cellent value as pie fruit. An association of ladies in 
Fort Wayne made arrangements with farmers and 
growers to distribute these apples among poor fam¬ 
ilies. Farmers agreed, and the women obtained auto 
trucks and helpers, went out into the orchard, picked 
up the fruit, brought it back aud distributed it. This 
was a fine thing for all concerned. The fruit was 
disposed of so that it was worth while, the poor people 
had a good taste of apples, and this free distribution 
was probably the best advertisement for apple growing 
in that section that could possibly be devised. Here 
is another thing which ought to be imitated in every 
large town where apples are grown. 
AT CHICAGO, TOO.—Still another distribution was 
conducted in a section of Chicago. On Apple Day a 
distribution was organized. A trolley car was loaded 
fully with apples, and appropriately decorated was 
hauled through a part of the city, the apples displayed 
and various dignitaries aboard. After the procession 
these apples were distributed to 26 orphanages, and 
let us hope that the little children in these institu¬ 
tions had at least one good tuck-out on apples, with 
not a Ben Davis in the lot. 
