The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-02-15

MS potato, the buTDduh, HIS plulu
with the same name and many fruits
and vegetables that could be men
toned has immortalized his name and
has led Carnegie to give him 100000
that he may continue his experiments.
So j. L. Budd, having won some sue
cesses, will have his name handed
down as a benefactor to his race while
the little fellows who parked at his
heels will have their names rot in
oblivion.
A prune raiser in California who
was not making much on his dried
prunes had a few cars of his fruit
shipped east to himself and going on
there sold them himself to the retail
ers. He didn't make much, if any
thing, by the venture but his eyes
were opened to the fact that many of
the retailers were making from 100 to
200 per cent on what prunes they
sold. This is a very suggestive reve-
lation. 1t is right and proper for each
man who handles fruits or for that
matter, anything else, should make
fair profit. But it is serious menace
to our business when the consumer
has to pay from four to five times as
much as the grower gets. The whole
saler must have his profit and if he
gets as big a per cent as the retailer
then the consumer and the grower
are both wronged. What can we do
in such cases? That is hard ques-
ton to answer. One thing we must
do and that is to organize so that we
can in some measure say what we are
to get for our fruit. If we find that
both wholesalers and retailers are
getting the lions share and are leav-
ing the growers to hold the empty
sack, we must establish markets of
our own in the large cities. This may
not be the best way out but we must
not be swindled by men who merely
handle what we produce. I never
have any kick at the commission men
who honestly handle my fruit at ten
per cent. That is a fair profit and
with that the commission man should
be content. If he is not, and while
handling my apples at ten per cent
buys somebody else's apples and
makes fifty to one hundred per cent
on these, and gives the preference to
the apples he buys, then l will let
him severely alone. There are some
OCn0T JuluSS along CuSSS lluSo W
which 1 am now giving some attention
and if I find that there is a combina-
ton among the handlers of our fruit
to control the price and take the lions
share of the profits, | shall speak right
out in "meetin' and tell what know.
X
While considering the difficulties
encountered by fruit growers with
those who handle their fruits whether
wholesalers or retailers, it may not
be amiss to call attention to another
difficulty that now confrOnts the grow
ers in some localities and is being
aired in the public press of the coun-
try. That difficulty is a discrimina-
ton on the part of the railroads in
taking fruit to a suitable market. The
people in southwestern Iowa could not
sell their apples in many parts of Ne
braska the past fall for the reason
that it cost them a good deal more to
send their apples a few miles by rail
than it did the people of the state of
New York to reach the same markets
with their apples though they were
hundreds of miles away. Why should
the apple growers of New York be
able to reach a western market a
thousand miles away at less rate
hun fhon thn in Iowa