The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-12-23

The best plan for marketing oranges
is as far from solution now as at any
time in the past. Mr. Greenleaf thinks
the auction plan offers the true remedy,
and sserts that the low prices received
for fruit is owing to the fact that grow
ers continue to forward their oranges TO
men instead of the auction.
on the other hand, DIR. McMeekin, I
whose communication will he found
elsewhere. says that it is bad plan to
sell oranges at auction when they are for
the same market.
DIR. McMeekin makes an important
admission in his cOmmunicatjon-that if
the Fruit Exchange could control all the
fruit of the State, it's plan of selling at
auction might be beneficial TO the grow
er. This is all that Greenleaf claims.
But we very much doubt if the auction
plan is the best under any circumstan-
ces. Yet, If the entire crop were owned
and controlled by one or more wealthy
dealers the auction plan would doubt
less be an improvement on the present
mo lie, but so long as the crop is owned
and marketed by the various proprietors
of groves in the State, such a plan
cannot work to our advantage. Large
dealers could hold over the crop as long
as they pleased, and commission men
could not bear the market; but when
shipped by the growers they have no
SUCH advantage. and commission men
know it and take advantage of the sit
uation. The true plan is for dealers TO
come here and buy the crop on the trees.
Mr.. Greenleaf thinks that this plan will
be the result of the efforts of the Ex-
change. but that cannot be so long as
that corporation insists on ''buliing" the
market.
Both Messrs. GreenleaC and McMeekin
assume that if the Exchange could con-
troll the entire crop, very favorable re-
suits might be obtained for the growers.
But there is big IF in their PROPOSE
ton. The Exchange, and no other body
of dealers, can control the entire crop.
That is a goal the Exchange can never
reach. And for this reason growers
have no faith that it could dispose of all
/ the fruit to advantage if it had control.
1t is not the present crop, but those of
/ the future that we must cons ider. When
/ our crop reaches two million of boxes,
! what can the Exchange do with it: What
( provision has it made for disposing of
! the crop when the product is IN excess
! of the demand:
! The point il to gain as many consum-
ers as possible. The Exchange has no
facilities to this end. It only seeks to
monopolize the product. New markets
should be opened up each year, and,
when the home markets are exhausted,
so to speak, those of foreign countries
/ cultivated.
In large cities selling at auction, where
all the product is owned by dealers, will
and has worked fairly well, but. of
course. all our fruit cannot be sold in the
large places, but must be distributed to
all points. Instead of trying to accom-
plish an impossibility, and to bolster up
the auction, is il not better for
the growers TO sell their crops to
dealers on the ground, and leave
the business of marketing to those who
live in the cities and understand that
branch of the business best? Ii is one
thing to raise oranges and another to sell
them. The growers have enough to do
to produce the fruit-they had better let
other persons transport and sell it. Con-
Generation and auction, in our judgment,
is not the road to success. The plan of
disposing of foreign fruits will not work
with ours. unless our product is bough,
by dealers and managed in the same