Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1913-07-11

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dependents came kilograms saying
That their onions had been rejected
and sold for freight charges. bring
ing from 20 to 80 cents crate-the
empty crates cost II cents-with
often freight bill for the grower to
foot.
Meanwhile the old guard were
marketing as of old--studying their
markets and having a representa-
tive there to see fair play when the
shipments arrived. But the fall of
the independents carried them with
It.. The condemned onons of the lat
ter were thrown upon the market at
from So to IS cents a crate The
Old guard would be selling theirs at
$3.50 crate when this dump would
come, Down alike would come indie
pendent and old guard onions TO
whatever figures the houses would
choose to fix. | talked with a man
who was one of the heavy losers
He had raised - carloads of onions,
shipped six and left the rest in the
ground for fertilizer. There are
$4,000 men, women and children in
this state suffering as result of
this calamity" he said.
In marketing perishable farm pro-
ducts the best brains in the coun-
try are needed to perfect and hold
together selling organizations and to
study the markets. There were un-
dreds of small towns that never
tasted a Bermuda onion last year.
This year the growers association
Las been drawn together once more.
They intend to hang together, for
It means their very life.
Although most of the growers sus-
pected it, recent systematic investi-
cations have proved that the grow
ers in the various trucking and fruit
raising zones in the country are ac-
tually competing against themselves.
Mr.. Jones hears that the Chicago
market is good for 20 carloads of
peaches on Monday. Mr.. Brown
hears the same glad news. Very
craftily Mr.. Jones and Mr. Brown
each send every peach they have to
Chicago. Only after the returns
come in do they get together and try
to figure out how on earth 1t could
DO so.
Just this very principle in blind
marketing is the first great evil that
| organization banishes. Looking at it
from the standpoint of the buyer is
enough to convert the most stubborn.
Suppose, for example, a cretain large
city can handle each week rs car
loads of certain truck crop at sat-
isfactory return for producer and
buyer. The buyers have not ordered
any cars as yet, but on Monday
morning they find a consignment of
50 on the tracks. Now they can ham
die rs cars this week, but how are
they to know that $50 will not come
pouring in? What they do is to draw
back, buy just enough to fill their
orders and let the shippers at the
other end of the line fill the sidings
and pay demurrage and freight
charges. When representatives of
the growers in these truck and fruit
zones are on the ground and assure
the buyers that just so many cars
will be sent in and no more, then
the buyers will buy and the growers
be paid for their work. Each will be
sure of his position and they can
work together.
Only the other day, while a great
trucking section of the Southwest
was in ferment over the problem of
marketing it's products, a little col
ony of Syrians came in and settled.
Inquiries brought out the fact that
they were buying their land and
working it on a cooperative basis.
A portion of the organization would
raise the truck; the remainder went
to good market cities and there
opened retail shops to sell their own
crops! There's the thing in a nut
she'll
Last season a certain section of
Texas produced bumper crop of
peaches, the last of the crop rotting
on the home ground in spite of the
fact that consumers wanted them. A
system attic investigation was made.
The bulk of this particular output
went to Colorado. These peaches,
picked, packed and delivered +, o. b.
at the Texas point, brought the
grower so cents a bushel The con-
sumner at the Colorado point paid
1918 a bushel 1t cost the Texas
grower to pick, pack and haul these
to the shipping point 81 cents. The
freight to the Colorado point was 40
cents bushel; icing Is cents; han
ding after reaching Colorado, $3.50.
- II. 1,.gr