Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-06-20
san Franel.eo orange MARKET.


The Chronicle says; at is said that
the Los Angeles orange growers have
not been ct all satisfied with San Fran
cisco as q market for their fruit during
the present season, and that the proba
bility is that very few shipments will in
the future be made to this point Ii IL
also stated that in many instances ship
ments OF oranges have decsyed on the
consigHees' hands and been a total loss,
owing to the impossibility OF selling
them at any price. So far as the cessa-
ton of shipments TO this city in the
future is concerned, In one respect that
10 contamination most devouIly to be-
wished. For II those who have this
season sent the quantities OF small,
smutty, half-decayed fruit to this mar
ket which have disflgured our streets
shall in the future forbear from so doing,
they will put themselves under lasting
obligations to San Francisco housekeep-
ers, who have been simply overrun with
peddlers offering fruit for sale which was
an offense to the sight and an insult to
the palate. They would rejoice II all
such were allowed to ret on the dealers
hands.
But when il comes to the consideration
OF good fruit, that Is another matter.
From the standpoint OF consumer who
uses oranges in large quantities when
ever the price is not absolutely prohib-
itcry. il is just as well for the orange
growers to know that no time dur
ing the season has good fruit sold here
at retail at other than prices which
should have returned liberal
| mr. IN
ing from store to store all over the city,
it will be found that the prices
run all the way from 25 to rs
cents per dozen for fruit which ii would
not be an insult to offer guest. Only
medium quality could be had at any
time at retail at 80 to 40 cents. and II
growers cannot get decent profit from
such prices something must be rad
ically wrong somewhere. Orange
growers and the papers which supply
them with information make great
mistake in not keeping posted on retail
prices as well as wholesale ones. Did
they do so perhaps less would be heard
OF poor sales and the absence OF de.
mand, and perhaps also lovers of good
oranges would be able to satisfy their
appetites at prices not more than six
times as high as the grower receives.
The experience OF a Florida orange |
grower with a shipment to Chicago may
not perhaps be out OF place here,
and may supply suggestion or two |
for thought. He sent a large lot of |
oranges to a fruit dealer and took |
the precaution to write to a friend |
in Chicago, asking him to visit |
the store as purchaser and find out in
what condition the fruit arrived and |
what prices it brought. The friend |
did so, and found the fruit in first |
class order and selling readily at $3.50 |
and Sc per box. This was encour-
aging to the shipper. but when
he received bis returns. strangely
enough, he was told most lugubrious
tale of how the oranges arrived badly |
decayed and had to be rushed of at 81
box or less in order to prevent total
loss. This being dsmurred to, and the
grounds Of the demurrer being stated, a
check for handsome sum was at once
and needless to say the
fruit dealer lost at least one customer.
The Chronicle does not wish to i'm
pugn the veracity of any dealer in the
,ity, but at the same time the truth of
the assertion is challenged that at no |
time during the season have oranges of |
good or even fair quality retailed here
1t the fruit stores at prices which would
not leave handsome profit to the |
grower"