barrel package has stood in the way of auction selling, although that plan has been tested in a small way. Not so many sales are arranged through brokers, partly for the same reasons and partly because the barrel sections are fairly close to large markets and more direct arrangements become practicable. OWNED STOCK City dealers know the location of the more desirable orchards and are likely to send buyers to contract for the crops at so much per barrel, packed and delivered at station or cold storage. DIRECT PURCHASE City wholesalers also buy of country dealers either f. o. b. country shipping point or to be delivered at the city terminal. Many sales are on wire orders, arranged between country and city dealers by telegraph, with or without the aid of a broker. The services of a broker are most likely to be employed when the car is bought from another dealer who has employed the broker to obtain competitive bids quickly. COMMISSION Shipments to commission dealers are mostly from shippers with whom long standing and presumably satisfactory relations have been established or from growers with holdings too small in quantity or too far distant from the usual shipping center to attract buyers. Shipments on commission become more common in years of heavy crops, and during such seasons dealers depend on them more. A CAR-LOT SALE The typical car lot of barreled apples is most likely to have been bought by the receiver direct from the country holder and shipped at once to the city for sale or storage. Sometimes the car may have been loaded by a local dealer and shipped to the city receiver, the terms of sale having been arranged by telegraph or indirectly through a broker. Some cars come from holders who have been loaned money by commission firms with the understanding that the lender handle the crop on a commission basis, or the car may have come from holders who wish to sell on a new market. Relatively few cars from the barreled-apple region are from associations of growers to be sold direct or handled through their city agency. CHARGES Commission rates are from 5 to 20 per cent according to the city, the size of shipment sold, and the dealer's practice. Some commission dealers charge the shipper 3 to 15 cents per barrel, most commonly 10 cents, for cartage from freight yard to store. Terms and conditions vary somewhat but in general the commission for selling large lots on which no advances have been made is from 7 to 8 per cent of the gross proceeds. In the case of fruit on which large advances have been made the usual commission for selling is 10 per cent, no interest having been charged on the money advanced. A commission of 10 per cent, sometimes more, is charged also on less than carlot shipments or on small shipments by several growers in the same car, and this rate is likewise applied to sales made through the receiver's stores rather than at the docks or yards. Some com 88494°-264 mission merchants employ men in shipping districts to solicit consignments to them. Thus in the case of some shipments, after deducting the pay of the representative at shipping point, commission men receive an actual net fee of only about 5 per cent. Sales of owned stock show, according to reports from several large markets, about 5 per cent added to cost when selling to jobbers and 10 per cent on small sales to retailers or others. In any event the buyer hauls his purchase or pays for delivery. The retailer also usually pays for delivery, although some jobbers include free delivery service to the station or to stores within city limits. The receiver sells apples either at the railroad yard, dock, or pier, or at his store, perhaps placing the apples in cold storage before taking them to the store. SALES FROM TRACK OR STORE Track sales are common in large cities where the cars can be brought close to the market center and there is room to accommodate the buyers who handle the stock. New York, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Baltimore have facilities for track or dock sales. In New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, and Boston, and, in fact, in a great majority of city markets a lack of track facilties favors disposal from the dealers' stores or wagons. Where either plan is practicable, the largest dealers prefer track sales because of promptness, simplicity, and low cost. Store sales favor the buyers' convenience, but are at higher prices because of the cost of hauling, handling, and storage. Many receivers have no time, space, or clerical help to accommodate buyers of small lots; others, especially those in smaller cities, sell large lots to jobbers and small lots to retailers at correspondingly higher prices, either at the track or at the store. SALES IN SMALL MARKETS In small markets the receiver is accustomed to attend to wholesale orders of any size and sales are mostly from the store. In such markets the dealer may buy mixed car lots put up at shipping point or reloaded and shipped from the nearest great distributing market. A group of small dealers sometimes unites to buy a car lot. Chain stores frequently buy car lots in shipping sections. Many small towns receive no car lots but are supplied a few barrels or baskets at a time by freight or express or by wagon and motor truck. FEATURES OF LARGE MARKETS NEW YORK If car-lot receipts of apples at New York are considered as bushels, the unloads of barreled apples average over 50 per cent of each year's total. The leading sources of barreled supply are New York State and Virginia, receipts from the former as a rule amounting to about 70 per cent and from the latter to 12 per cent of the barreled stock unloaded. Maine ships the Baldwin and Wolf River. Vermont sends McIntosh and Northern Spy. West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland supply York Imperial, Winesap, Stayman Winesap, and other kinds. Washington, Oregon, and California ship a long list of varieties and furnish nine-tenths of the boxed apples. Average receipts of apples in car lots for the period 1918 to 1923 are shown by States of origin in Figure 18. Oldenburg during September, Wealthy during September and October, and Twenty Ounce from October 1 to December 15 are the principal fall varieties from New York. A considerable volume of the McIntosh is offered between November 15 and the end of the year, and an occasional car of this variety is seen on the market as late as the last of April. Northern Spy is sold chiefly between December 1 and March 15, but supplies are never very heavy. By far the most important varieties offered here from New York State are Baldwin and Rhode Island Greening. Greening appears as early as October 1 and dominates the market for cooking apples throughout the season. Baldwin appears about the first of November and continues in steady volume until about the last of May. It is considered the market leader throughout this period of over six months. The principal variety from Virginia is York Imperial, appearing about the 1st of October and coming in regular supply until the 1st of March. Winesap, Stayman Winesap, Ben Davis, and Rome Beauty are sold in lighter volume between December 1 and March 31. Yellow Newtown or Albemarle Pippin from Virginia is offered in New York City between the middle of March and the middle of June. The standard pack for barreled apples for sale locally, and the one upon which practically all buying is based, is the A grade, 21⁄2 inches and upward in diameter. The larger sizes (234 inches upward and 3 inches upward) command from 50 to 75 cents per barrel more for each one-fourth inch in diameter. Most shipments from the Hudson River Valley come down the river on steamboats and are hauled to the receiver's store where they are sold. Rail shipments from the Hudson River Valley, western New York, Vermont, and Maine, which represent the great bulk of the receipts of eastern apples, are loaded upon floats at Sixty-eighth Street, New York, and at Weehawken, N. J., and are lightered in their original cars to Pier 17 at Barclay Street, where they are unloaded and sold. The receipts from the South arrive at Jersey City and are lightered across to Pier 28, where they are unloaded and sold. Most of the barreled apples are sold at these two places, Pier 17 and Pier 28. All delivering is done by the receivers as the buyers' trucks are not allowed on the piers, and the apples are delivered to the buyers' stores about as cheaply as the buyer could haul them. Sales are made on "dock" basis and 121⁄2 to 20 cents per barrel for cartage is added to the sale price, depending on the section of the city to which the stock is to be delivered. In many cases, when on account of a dull market a receiver is unable to "clean up" at a satisfactory price, he hauls the apples to his store and sells them in smaller lots there. In such cases shippers are charged for cartage and the commission for selling is a little higher. But because usually it is possible to get a slightly higher price for small sales made from the stores, some shippers request their receivers to follow this procedure with all of their cars. PHILADELPHIA Receipts at Philadelphia from the barrel region represent about 60 per cent of apples arriving in car lots. Nine-tenths of the remainder are from Washington. The chief eastern sources of supply are New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, |