Los Angeles herald., 1890-10-23
$500, 600 WORTH OF FRUIT.
The Fruit Comes Here, the Money
Goes to California.

&@SAeASA
Less than six years ago the multifa-
rieus delicacies of the glorious climate
of California were almost unknown in
the New York market. Today they
adorn nearly every big and little.fruit
stand in town. They excel the finest
native products in beauty and size, vie
with them in flavor, and are not so dear
that workingman cannot afford to buy
some for his wife or sweetheart. Only
few years ago Tokays from the Golden
Gate brought so cents pound;
now they may be had for 10 and 15
cents. This is because California has
awakened to the fact that New York is
the great fruit center of the world, and
pays the highest prices for the best
products. At the end of this season she
will have poured from her marvellous
cornucopia into this and neighboring
states 10000, 900 pounds OF grapes, pears,
peaches, prunes and plums. That will
be just half OF what she will unload at
Chicago this year, and ten times as much
as she sent to us only three years ago.
She has got grip on the affections of
the fruit-lovers hereabouts by offering
them only her best products, and she is
going to try to keep it. Our native fruit,
is not holding it's own against the west
ern invader. This is especially true OF
pears, which are much inferior to the
luscious, clear-skinned California Bart
let's that may be seen on hundreds of
stands in tempting, picturesque pyra-
mids OF gold and rose. The peaches
from across the continent don't come up
to the best from nearby orchards but
they are big and juicy and fair to look
upon.
Nearly all the California fruit that
comes here is sold by Auctioneer E. L.
Goodsell at his store in Park place or
on the long. rooted pier at the foot of
the street. Buyers from Philadelphia
to Providence are informed by telegraph
of the expected arrival of train load
and come here to bid on whatever part
of it they may want Mr.. Goodsell is
tall, nervous young man with the rapid
lty OF utterance characteristic OF good
auctloneer. He is an eastern man and
a graduate OF Yale, but he is as much of
a hustler as the wild west ever pro-
duced. He defies erybody-even in
Chicago-to beat his record of selling in
four and half hours, on September I'd,
fifteen carloads of fruit comprising $500
boxes of Bartlett pears, 1000 boxes of
peaches. 1900 boxes of plums and prunes,
and 250O crates OF grapes. Forty men
unloaded the cars and piled the fruit in
400 different lots on the pier. Fifty
trucks took the fruit away, beginning
to load at IL 80 a. m. and getting through
the job little after midnight. Twenty
four hours after the sale occurred every
California shipper had the money he
obtained from it in his pocket or his
bank.
Many OF the purchasers, who gather
on the pier when train load is piled
there like miniature mountain chains,
are Italian iobbers, who sell to the VEN
ders and stand keepers. Boxes in every
lot are opened, and buyers are allowed
to examine the fruit. Every buyer has
catalogue, which tells where the fruit
is grown. The Earl Fruit company is
the biggest shipper. There are half
dozen Cinnamon in the business, and
they dispose of their fruit to the big
concerns which send them here. One OF
the lots sold the other day was made up
OF two boxes OF pears grown by Mr..
Quong Wo, who has reputation as
fine grower. One hundred of his
countrymen make living as growers.
In exchange for her tons of fruit the
jobbers of this section will send CaIifor-
mia about $4O0, 900, all of which will be
nearly clear profit. ~
Mr.. Goodsell says that California fruit
has come to stay. He believes that we
shall be receiving within a few years
more fruit than goes into the Chicago
market. The cars that bring the fruit
here are run into the section where the |
growers are and loaded directly from the
orchards and vineyards The fruit is
packed in such condition that it NAV
ripen at the end of ten days, the length
of the journey from the western coast. |
New York gets the very best quality of
the crop, because she pays more for it
than the growers can get elsewhere
New York Post.
~rynrnnrn or ~o,rrr--~-