The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1922-06-22

Bamberg County Truck Growers as
sOciation has received a letter from
Smith & Holden, commission mer-
chants of New York, relative to the
situation that has prevailed in regard
to the cucumber crop in Bamberg, eX-
planning the reason for the market
going to pieces. Inasmuch as many
farmers hereabouts are interested in
this subject, The Herald prints below
this letter, excluding some personal
matters, for the information of Gu
cumber growers and all others in
terested in this matter; the letter be-
ing signed by P. Willis Holden, men,
Der Of the firm above referred to:
On June 3rd sent you a long day
letter, in reference to the cucumber
situation here, and advised you that
it was about the worst that | have
ever seen.
I want to confirm this by saying
that / have been handling cucumbers
here from the south on consignment
basis, for approximately twenty-five
years, and l do not think that l have
ever been placed in as undesirable
position as | was last week, and the
early part Of this week, when we had
to refuse approximately car loads
OF cucumbers from your association.
| want to go further and say that
the refusing of these cucumbers was
in no way caused by poor quality,
grading or packing of the commodity,
but rather l want to ongratulate YOU,
for the efficient manner in which
these cukes have been graded and
packed, and to say that in all my eX-
perience, l do not think l have ever
come across a similar condition,
where a station like Bamberg, prac-
tically unknown in the cucumber
growing industry to any extent, has
the first year, with any quantity ship
ments come to the front and made
such strong showing in the way of
grading and packing.
Furthermore, the general reputa-
ton for ,cucum bers originating at or
very close to Bla ckville, has been any
thing but good. l would hardly dare
to repeat the remarks that l have
heard in the past ten years, relative
to the raw methods pursued by
many or most of the cucumber grow
ers or shippers at Blackville, and to
meet up with Bamberg this year,
practically new in the cucumber
game, and have grading and packing
up to the standard that your asso-
citation has done, is very unusual.
l am going to give the credit for
this situation, to you, because I be-
lieve that it was your good business
methods that brought it about.
l have had to refuse many ship
ments of cukes in the past years,
about which l did not feel any un-
usual regret, because of the way that
the goods had been graded and pack
ed, but it did hurt me very much, to
have to refuse the cars that you en-
trusted to us.
| want to explain to you condi-
ton that We are up against when
glutted periods are on here, in this
way: If there are so carloads of
cukes arrive, of which 10, Is or 20
are in bad condition or of such poor
quality or grading that they will not
bring freight charges, they are re-
fused to the transportation company,
to avoid paying transportation charg-
es. AS soon as these cukes are re-
fused, a sale is effected if possible oy
the selling agent of the railroad COM
pany, and cukes that might under
normal conditions bring 40 or so
cents per basket, will be sold at ID
or 20 cents, or possibly 25 cents per
basket.
4 receiver here has three hours,
from the opening of the market, or
al the present times until a. m. to
file refusals with the transportation
company.
1t is always our policy to wait until
almost the last moment before Of
fering refusals, so as to keep these
goods off of the market as long as
possible. but the point that want
to make is, that as soon as the rail-
road selling agent begins to offer loc.
zoe or 25c cukes, the outcome is that
receivers with better cukes, that
might have been sold for at least
freight charges, possibly from lOc to
Csc more, are forced at the last mo-
ment to refuse their arrivals to the
transportation company.
The large buyers of cukes, under
such conditions, know how the thlng
works out, and simply refuse to buy
cukes at Csc or 75c which would show
the transportation charges, and we
will say the cost of the package, ana
wait until the refusals are in, and buy
the same cukes, for half or less than
half of the price that they could nave
been bought for earlier.
have not overlooked the fact that
YOU have secured graders and pack
ers from Florida for these cukes. ana
naturally at considerable expense.
appreciate that you undoubtedly nave
very big interest in the success OF
truck growing at Bamberg. ana |
have never seen work along that line
done better than you have done, ana
I am sure it is no fault Of yours, tAat
the results will be so unsatisfactory.
T., o1oc;pp p,Oct comment TO CQlS