Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-10-14

Snlppeu certain regular QuantlueS on GER
tain days in the week.
B. M.-This plan sounds very plausible,
but it won't work.
Gro.-Why?
b. M.-Because you can get no Eastern
retail grocer or market man to obligate
himself to take certain daily quantities of
perlshable fruit at a certain fixed price
when he feels that by depending on the
open market he may be able to do still
better.
Gro.-What you say would be true if the
certain fixed price asked were high or a
fancy one. But if you.. were an Eastern re-
tail grocer, who had been gingerly handling
very few boxes of California fruits during
season, for which you had to pay the
Spectator from Is to 25 cents per pound
and for which you had to charge your Gus
toners from % cents per pound and up
ward, what would you say if proposition
were made to furnish you at the
rate of ten or more boxes per day. with
first class qualities of fruits, warranted to
be in good condition, at six cents per
pound, so that you could retail it at 10
cents per pound and make 40 per cent
profit; how long would it take you to de-
eide on the proposition?
b. M.-Why, ] should jump at it, of
course. But can this be done? Can first
class California fruits be sold to an Eastern
retailer at six cents per pound and permit
the grower and small middleman to live?
Gro.-Yes; the very best quality can be
sold for six cents per pound, and many
varieties can be sold for even less, as the
following calculation will show: Price
paid to producer for very best quality
rokay table grapes, d cents per pound !;
freight at rate of $500 per car, u cents !;
boxes, crates, ETC., cent; profit to small
middleman, l cent. Total, cents per
pound. Muscat, Hamburg and other va
rieties of good table grapes, also peaches,
plums, etc., can be sold from a half to 1
cent per pound less, with the same margin
of profit for both grower and middleman.
Ii. M.-But am | to understand that one
cent pound is, in your Judgment, suf-
ficient profit to repay the small shipper for
his risks and his services.
Gro.-Yes, sir one cent pound profit
will prove very handsome compensation,
not alone for one, but even for a firm OF
two partners of limited capital. In the
first place, having fixed customers who
take fixed quantities, the risk incurred by
shipping to an open market is entirely OBJ
waited. The only remaining risk is in the
danger of poorly packed fruit which may
spoil while in transit. This risk is, how
ever, reduced to minimum; first, by buy
ing only from reliable growers; second, by
being enabled to deliver the fruit to the re-
taller at once instead of searching for GUS
toners after its arrival. If this accommo-
dation car plan is adopted what will -pre-
vent two young men with a capital be-
tween them not exceeding fifteen hundred
dollars from engaging in this business with
the following results? "a" goes to some
moderate sized eastern city and secures as
PERMANENT CUSTOMERS
| Say ten grocers or market men, all in the
/ same town. whom he agrees to furnish
| every other day during the season, with
twenty-five boxes of iirst-class California
| fruit at 6 cents per pound. "B makes
| his arrangements here with one or more
| growers to take from them, every other
| day, in all $50 boxes of frst-class fruit
ready for shipment and delivered at cen.
trail point, for which he agrees to pay the
| highest market rates, not exceeding q
cents per pound. Thus, every other day
"B F" ships and "a :" receives quarter
carload of fruit, consisting of $50 boxes
of 20 pounds each, which "A .
within a few hours has distributed at
the rate of 25 boxes to each
of his ten Eastern grocers or market men.
By making three such quarter carload ship
ments per week they will have handled fol
the SIX days just $4,000 pounds of fruit
| which at the rate of one cent per pound
profit will leave them dividend for theil
weeks work the sum of $50 to be divided
between them. This plan can of course be
| enlarged or modified according to the CAPT.
tai at command. Any Eastern city of 20 ,0OC
| population, and of which there are hun
dreds, will easily support one such small
| shipping firm as | have described, while
| cities of 100000 and over will readily sup.
mort Cpvpra1 srrph
| inc for moment
THE EFFECT
On our fruit culture; the effect on the in.
| crease of population, the effect on our com
merce, the effect on the values of our land
If every city, town and hamlet was honey
| combed by network of such sma II work
ers, who would penetrate into every
nook and corner of our country, and
place our fruits daily upon the table of all
wno could afford to pay 10 cents per pound
As you now begin to realize that such q
| thing as over-production of California
| fruits would become an impossibility, car
| you realize that such thing as the finest
peaches ever raised being sold for twenty
cents a box, yes, even being dumped
| into the bay of San Francisco
for want of buyers, could never more
take place? And can Won further
realize that the key to this grand future is
to-day in the hands of the railroad authori-
| ties, and Of the fruit-growers and shippers
who, if they choose to make use of it, and
turn in the right direction, by reducing the
| fruit tariff to the lowest possible rate, and
| by removing all barriers and impediments
| that now hamper this important industry
| can open out new and grand era of pros.
perity.
| THE CONCLUSION.
| M ,
| the cause for the apparent glut in fruit al
the present time, could not be explained
more pointedly nor conclusively than by a
press dispatch from New York, published
in the REcoRD-UN1oN to-day. It says:
| Some enterprising dealers have brought a late
| variety of the fruit from California-the finest
| peaches now to be had in the market. Probably
these California peaches aoN continue to come here
in small. quantities for several lceeks but only a
| small quantity ieR be required, as they cannot be
| sold for less than SO per bushel
There is the entire explanation of our
not having ready market for all our fruit,
and at remunerative prices" ONLY A
| SMALL QUANTITY WILL BE REQUIRED, AS
THEY CANNOT BE SOLD FOR LESS THAN sic
PER BUsHEL." These peaches were pur.
chased here from the grower at not to ex-
coed 81 25 per bushel, and could have been
| sold with good profit at So per bushel AT
that price every marketable peach raised in
California this year would have found i'm
mediate sale, as also would all other kinds
of fruit at corresponding rates. This
would have made all fruit-growers
prosperous; money would have been
plenty, fruit lands would have advanced
largely in value, and state of almost I'M
paralleled prosperity would have prevailed.
What is killing the fruit industry and blast
ing the prosperity of the State is the ex-
orbitant profits being charged by shippers
and middlemen, which amounts to almost
total prohibition upon the sale of our
fruits. Let the railroad company reduce
the price of transportation to $500 per car
load let quarter carload lots be received
as above suggested, and the business and
competition in fruit shipping and selling at
the East, which will at once spring up will
afford remunerative and ready market for
all our fruits. Train loads will be sent
forward IN tho East evarv 6au d1riOu III o