El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-06-11

l. l. ~ he EDUlU4AEEAOn lldA 10 EAdAAAIA
for many things he does no
4 dO-he is made the goat" SAID
Z P. Kepley before a meeting Of the
farm and irrigation committee Of the
chamber OF commerce Wednesday aft
ernoon- He had been invited to give
the views OF a commission man on the
handling Of valley products The min
o. ute commission man passes down tns
row of wagons" he said, near the
courthouse, the price rises You can
90 there and buy onions at Is cents
a dozen 1 paid 20 cents a dozen this
morning for them.
When the growers see a commission
man coming the price goes up imme-
diately. Last sumner some cabbage
growers up the valley telephOned me
and said they had a surplus Of cab
bage and asked If 1 could sell them.
I asked the price and they quoted it
7 spent telegraph tolls and sold three
carloads. When I asked for delivery
they said: No, We can get more for
them / haven't squared myself yet
with the firm made the sales to.
Deliveries Not Made.
Three years ago the ClOudcroft peO-
pie had me come up there and I agreed
TO buy their apples at the Denver price
plus the difference in freight which is
40 cents This means that I was 70
pay them 40 cents more than the Den
yer quotations. They agreed to sell,
YET AAEA i HAdEE4 their apples ana
telephOned for the goods the growers
told me they had sold 10 a Texas com
pany for a better price-and they never
got cent from the Texas man-neTer
even heard from their shipment
I made the statement at Cloudcroft
that we were spending 100000 a year
for California produce and fruits. and
that il might almost all be supplied
from around here and what do you
think they did later2 They went around
and told that KepIey boosted of send
ing 100000 year TO California for
fruits and vegetables They even wrote
ne up in The Herald about it.
Teaching Growers TO Pack.
viii Crombie and 1 have spent
money for years sending packers
around this part Of the country help
ing the growers to pack fruit that we
can sell and what thanks do We get2
They want to throw the packers off
the place for excluding worm eaten and
defOrmed apples. They are getting bet
ter, admit, but there is little recon-
pense to the commission men for help
ing the people to help themselves"
Mr.. CrOmbie interjected: The ordi-
nary bunch Of onions is from eight to
Il The valley farmers invariably pack
five or six in q bunch and we cannot
snip out such punches TO customers
who sell them in competition with the /
bigger punches from other cOmmuni- (
ties"
The Farmer as a Salesman.
The valley farmer-the average one I
will load up his wagon and haul his !
stuff to town." said 8Ir. Kepley, ''and 1
try to sell to every grocery store or I
private family in town, then come ana (
try to dump the leftOVers onto US. They /
viii load a hundred pounds OF grapes /
into box or the bed Of a wagon
they have often done it-and haul the I
stuff to town and expect US to market l
ii for them instead Of packing the /
product carefully in baskets, assorted |
as TO size.
We cant go into the valley and get :
q decent order for shipment cut Of !!
town There is too much stuff raised I
here for home consumption and not
enough yet to ship out Let US ask for I
ten dozen OF a hundred dozen packs I
OF something and the price immediate
" goes up and we can't fill the order.
No Price Standard.
There rs no standard price here 4
The growers want us to pay the retail 1
local market price. They come to town 4
IN the morning with tomatoes at five
cents pound; at S o'clock they are
four cents. at three cents, and at 10
any old price to get rid Of them 10
the retail trade, but let commission
man try TO make a purchase and watch
the price advance
What We need is a market here-a
designated place in the city where the
valley producers can bring their stuff