The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1912-09-13
THE GREAT TRUCK AND FRUIT
INDUSTRY OF THE SOUTH
WEST.
A Meeting is Called at Dallas, Texas,
October 1e, to Provide -Four
States" Exchange to Market the
Products of Texas, Arkansas, Lou
isiana and Oklahoma.

The man or woman living in the
middle, northern or eastern part OF
the Unit d States, when he goes to
market from January to June to buy
vegetables and fruits for his table,
hardly ever gives a passing thought
to the section of country from which
these food products come, or OF the
people who spend the winter months
delving in the soil, planting and tend
ing the vast acres from which the
early vegetables and fruits to feed the
nation are produced. All that the
consumer realizes is that the price is
high and the days are few and far
between when there is plentiful as
sortment to choose from. If ne gets
any idea about the producer 1t is that
he is some sort of highway robber
who makes the poor consumer OF
the north pay double prices. He does
not realize the magnitude OF the fruit
and truck growing industry OF the
southwest from which he gets his
supplies; he does not know that many
growers labor all winter, spend their
time and money for months, and them
in many cases get no pay when the
shipping season comes on. II a con-
sumer were told this fact, he would
growl back that it was no fault OF
his. Goodness knows, pay enough,
he saws. And he does The u. 5.
Department of Agriculture has Inquired
it out that for ordinary farm crops
the consumer pays one dollar, where
the producer receives only 46 cents.
The balance is expense and loss un-
der our outrageous marketing system
in getting the productions of the farm,
from the farm to the home of the con-
sumer. The fellow who has II IN
for corporations in general and the
railroads in particular, will say that
the railroads get it. But this is not
true. The railroads and the refrlger-
ator car companies get about 70 per
cent of it. the balance is divided be-
tween dealers profits and loss occa-
stoned by a bad system of marketing,
AS a matter of fact, on perishable
products which have to be rushed TO
the markets or the cold storage houses
as soon as they come from the fields
and orchards, do not begin to pay the
producer 46 cents for every dollars
worth the consumer buys. On the
gross amount he produces, a large part
Of which is lost through lack OF sys-
tenn in putting it into he hands Of the
consumer, distributing it to the multi
tude of markets in proportion to their
ability to consume it, the growers do
not on the average get one-half OF
forty-six cents out of every dollars
worth produced.
AS an example fthis, some Texas
onion growers could give their expert
ences this year One grower at Ash
erton sent four cars of white Bermu-
das to the market and actually had to
nay out of his pocket $3.50 in order to
give them away! Yet, at the very
time. the consumers, buying in small
quantities. were paying for these same
onions FIVE cents a pound, or twelve
hundred dollars per car One OF the
biggest onion growers in Texas, sum
ming up his profits on siXty-tWo cars,
found that it did not amount to enough
to pay the hands for gathering and
storing the sorghum used to feed the
stock on his farm In one day at Hous'
ton. Texas, forty carloads of water
melons were sold by the railroad com
panies and did not bring enough
money to pay the freight, yet there
were hundreds of thousands of people
in these United States who would
have been glad of the opportunity oi
buying these melons at good price
Peaches. fine Elbertas, have on the
same day sold at twenty-five cents pei
crate in one market and at eighty-five
cents in another not hundred miles
distant. Such instances could be enum
Grated every season by the hundreds
The business man, if his attention
were called to this condition, Woulc
remark that the reason was, there was
not enough business, or money in the
business, to pay the expense OF main
tanning a shipping organization suffici
emily extensive to intelligently distri
butte these fruit and truck products
Perhaps not, yet during the season
n