The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1902-10-01

Portland commission houses do not dea
fairly with them. Fruit growers here de
clare repeatedly that the Portland com
mission men are "doing" them.
"Port1and as we'll as Southern Oregon
will lose if this thing is kept up very
much 1cnger," one prominent Southern
fru1t grower declared yesterday. 'We
simply cannot afford to ship our fruit
there and get nothing in RETURN"
"fhe reason we don't ship our melons
to Portland, but peddle them out at in
ternaediate points," said leading Jose.
pkine melon grower, "is because we gel
nothing for them from the commission
men. understand that they are max.
and are attempting to put stop to us
having our cars set out at by-points, on
the plea that it is injuring their business.
they desire to compel the railroad COM
paay to make us ship our melons direct
to Portland. If they succeed in doing
this it will work great injury to the mel
On industry in Southern Oregon"
Several Southern Oregon fruit growers,
who have been shipping the greater part
of their fruit to Portland for many sea-
sons past, ceased shipping this year and
are consigning their product to other
points, north and east, because it pays
better. One josephine grower shipped
40 boxes of choice peaches to Portland
commission merchant and received a
check for $3.50 in return. Another ship
ped So boxes of l'ears and got six cents in
return These things seem almost in
credible, yet it is the exact condition Of
things Disguised with his returns and
possessing desire to ascertain the real
condition of things, prominent jose
phlne fruitgrower spent four days in Port
land recently making quiet investiga-
tion. He said he found that the quota
tions sent out by the commission men to
the shippers and growers were of the low
est grade of fruit handled. For instance,
peaches would be quoted at 50 cents.
This would be the figure sent the shipper
anu AAAo AStul h0 nouAO US UdSOO Ou
less the 10 per cent commission; the loss
in handling, and the freight charges. AS
q matter of fact the com mission men
would sell the lowest grade of them for
SO cents, while the greater portion would
go at 90 cents, IS cents, 81 and $1.2O
The shipper would have to be content
with anything the commission man gave
him.
81 saw some of my own fruit and some
of my neighbors' sell for 81 per box that
we got only 80 cents box for" said the
the man who investigated things. "a
shipment of pears that sent in and which
I had been informed were shipped east
and had been lost, found in Portland
stores. know my boxes by their mark
and could have sworn to them. Those
pears sold for a good price, yet didn't
get one copper cent for them. I found
also that much of this loss in handling,
by rotting, boxes breaking, etc., is all
made up. tell you Pm disgusted and
no more of my fruit will 60 to Portland !
until there is a change in things.'
When asked why they do not ship di-
rect to the grocers and dealers, the grow
ers reply that this cannot be done because
the commission men will not allow it,
They have their "spotters'' out and when
ever q dealer is found who has
on hand a quantity of fruit that
did not come through the commits.
sion merchants, he is at once offer.
ed the same grade of fruit at much
less than the price he paid the grow
er. This bars oul the direct shipping
business and puts the commission
men in line again.
When asked what they are going
to do about it, a number of growers
in commission house of their own
there, and have it in charge of a
man who knows the business and
can besstrusted. The fruitgrowers
of Southern Oregon would prefer to
dispose Of their fruit in Portland if
it could be done with profit, but
when they can do better by ship
ping elsewhere it is business for
them to do so.
Chicago News: An ancient Swiss
proberb advises people during thun-
der storms to avoid the oak tree, to
fly from the fir and to seek the
beech tree, which is safe. A little
while ago a special inquiry was
made in the canton of Lucerne to
find if there were any truth in the
proverb. Statistics showed that out
of SO trees struck by lightning in a
forest district Sc were oaks, "a frs
and larehes, but, though there were
IL beeches, not a single one suffer
ed.
San Antonio, Tex, Sept. 21.-A