Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-12-01
OUR FRUITS.
THEIR DISPOSAL BY AUCTION OR
OTHERWISE.
A Review Of the Subject-Do the
Facts Bear Ont the Arguments
for Commission Sales

EDS. RECORD UNION: In analyzing tn
article which appeared in your issue
Monday, under the head of Fruit-Mai
keting," and which was taken from tn
New York Market Journal Of the Goth inst
1 find that out of the sixteen New Yor
fruit-dealers interviewed by the representa-
tive of that journal, eight believe the aue
ton plan the best for marketing Californi
fruit in the East, six favor private sale
through commission men, and two ar
neutral in their opinions. desire to poin
out a number of fallacious arguments use'
by the six dealers who are opposed to auc
ton sales, and who are anxious to perpet
uate the present method of selling on com
mission at private saba method
which, while it may be satisfactory t.
a few of the Eastern commission
men, has thus far, as a rule, proven
almost disastrous to the California as wei
as to the Florida grower.
In the article taken from the New York
Market Journal, f. f. Cosgrove q Sons
dealers in Florida oranges, say: "Frequen
| letters from our Florida correspondent
| state that our returns are from 10 to 20 pei
cent higher than auction sales of the samt
| goods"
Against this statement permit me tc
quote the following, taken from the annual
report of the Florida Fruit Gr0gers' Er
change, which has just come to hand:
Last season was our first We do not pretend
| to claim that we pleased everybody. We do moi
4 ftn1 do
| claim to have accomplished everything we
| hoped for. But we do claim to have Melted the
| growers more money for the fruit handled than
| they received for the same quantity of fruit
| during the previous season.
Our commission friends charged us with
| breaking the markets" They seemed totally
| obliyious to the fact that, although the Elk
| change was not in existence during the previ-
! Gus season. yet the markets were never SO badly
| demoralized as then. During the best part oil
/ the winter of 1884 oranges were selling at from
| 70 cents to 81 % per box gross. What must have
| been the net average? At present we see no
| better plan than the Florida Fruit Exchange
| plan, which, though operated only for one win
| ter, and the worst winter Florida has ever
known at that, kept Up the prices of oranges
| through December, the worst month, fully 81
per box more than we got last year.
In addition to the above facts, which tell
| strong story, the writer has before him a
catalogue of an auction sale of Florida
oranges held in Boston on November 23
1886, by H. Harris & Co., showing that a
| shipment of Oil boxes realized $2,799, or
an average of So OF per box.
In answer to the statement made in the
same article by f. S. Maynard, who says
=" 1 think good fruit will bring more sold
by commission dealers, and poor fruit
should be sent to auction would say
that we have absolute proof, as certified to
by Brown & Seecomb, the New York fruit
auctioneers, and by Sgobel & Day, the larg-
est Mediterranean consignees, that this sea-
son good Almeria grapes brought at auction
from 81 80 to 50 per barrel alongside of thou
sands of barrels of inferior fruits, which
sold at from 81 so to 81 so. Could Mr..
Maynard have secured better prices for the
fine fruits at private sale? l think not.
J. Cromwell says, in his opinion, as the
result of twenty years experience in the
fruit trade, that it will be vastly more to
the interest of fruit-growers of both Florida
and California to send their product to re-
sponsible commission houses here, as
think return made by the latter will be, in
the future, as they have been in the past
more satisfactory than by any other dispo-
sition which can be made of them. | have
this season handled fifty carloads of Cali
fornia grapes, and do not believe that at
auction these grapes would have netted
two-thirds the prices 1 have been able to
realize for my consignees."
In reply to the statement made by Mr..
Cromwell, would say that if California
growers are content with this seasons linn
tied consumption of California fruits in
New York and other extreme Eastern
markets, then the system Mr.. Cromwell
advocates, of selling through few COM
mission houses at private sales may be as
good as any but in that event California
growers should cease planting and extend
ing their acreage; in fact, should tear up
a liberal proportion of trees and vines
already planted. If our fruits are to be
popularized in the New York market it can
never be done under Mr.. Cromwell's plan.
If we send to few commission houses, the
consumption, as was the case this season,
must be limited. If we send to a great
many commission houses, we bring about
the condition which this year existed in
Chicago and the West, where California
| fruit came into the fercest competition
with itself; where markets were con-
tinually glutted, and returns highly
| unsatisfactory. Hence, so far as the Cali
| fornia grower is concerned, the returns in
| the past, Mr.. Cromwell's statement to the
contrary Notwithstanding, have been far
from satisfactory. As to the Florida grower
let him speak for himself, as he most en-
phatically does, in the following extracts
taken from the first annual report of the
Florida Fruit Exchange:
During past seasons no organized system was
| in force among the growers Every grower
| shipped according to his own inclination, few
| if any, having reliable information as to the
| condition of markets. The worst feature oil
this method was that the shipments we're scat.
tered Unfortunately all over the country in
| such a manner that the fruit was continually
competing with itself. New York City for in
| stance, with from one to two hundred commits
| sion merchants, all receiving shipments direct
| from the growers to be sold on commission. Oh
| course, these commission men viii never buy
fruit so long as they can get it to sell on com
| mission. They run no risks whatever in receIy-
| ing fruit to sell for account of the growers
| Again, not one fruitgrower out of every hun.
bred is in position to know or keep fully posted
as to the reliability of the commission merchant
to whom their fruit is shipped. Ignorance on
/ this point alone has caused many to lose hun.
| dreds of dollars Notwithstanding all this, the
| growers have persisted in following this hap.
! hazard policy year after year. Season after
| season, markets were glutted in the same old
\ way and as a natural consequence low prices
| ruled Now while the growers have been suffer.
ing through these disasters, the facts show that
1 the commission men have not become discouY
| aged One fact alone proves that they have
sustained no losses and this is the continual in
| crease in the number of soliciting agents sent
/ to Florida every season, ell eager to secure O
| Now, as long as the Florida growers continue &c
supply commission men with fruit, the commits
| sion men viii never buy, and just so long as the
| seatteratioD policy continues. iusi so long viii
success in the orange business be an uncertainty
Mr.. Merritt, of the Merritt Fruit Com
panv, does not believe in auction sales HI
AYERS that in his experience of over twenty
years in handling fruit he has been able tC
realize from 20 to 40per cent. above auction
prices.
On reading this statement the writer sent
the following dispatch;
A. IT, Tres, General Manager Florida Fruit En-
change Jacksonville, Florida How do auction re
turns thus far compare with private sale?
Here is his answer, which needs no com
ment:
JACKSONVILLE, Fla, November 30, 1886
| IL Heipstock, SdcrdBlento, CAL: Auction return
are more satisfactory than private sale thus far
A. NJ. IVES.
If for twenty years past fruit at privat
sale has realized from 20 to 40 per cent
above auction prices, what are we to thinl
of the Mediterranean growers who durin
all those years have chung so tenaciously t,
the auction plan? Are We to regard then
as being so blinded to their own interest
that they willfully ignore method of sal
which would bring them from 20 to 40 pc
cent. more than they now realize? Ant
what are we to think of the Florida grow
ers, who, in the face OF Mr.. Merritts state
ment, have so recently abandoned tn
method he advocates and are adopting tn
| H., n. A. Will