The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-06-04
NEW Workers.
APPETITE IS
FARMERS LOSS
Finicky Palate Given as Rea-
son for Spread in Produc-
ton Consumption Prices

New York, June A fnicky pal
ate and the one big market habit are
the principal reasons why New York
ers pay so much more for fruit and
vegetables than the producing farmer
gets for them, says a report pre-
pared by Walter p. Hidden for the
Department Of Agriculture and the
Port Of New York authority
In the first place, it required l4l,-
900 carloads of the stuff each year
to satisfy the hungers of the citys
5000 900 persons, and>all of it, as
the first step in distribution from
rail head TO consumer is dumped in
Central Market, a narrow stretch ex-
tending for few blocks along the
West Side waterfront of Manhattan.
This custom has grown up, Mr..
Hadden explains, because all the job
bers of the city insist on seeing all
the newly-arrived fruit and vegeta-
bles, and on comparing rivals prices,
before they will buy. Thus attempts
to break the dominance of the cent raj
market have failed.
Then the problem of diversity
arises. A few years agb, the report
indicates. the public appetite accept
ed it's produce i'm bulk-Oranges for
breakfast, always, or perhaps apples,
and few potatoes, onions and other
n fol hn
week.
Now the average housewife must
have California grapefruit for her
breakfast table one day, Florida grape
fruit the next, Oregon apples the
third, New York apples the fourth,
Michigan peaches the next, continu-
ing with fruits of varying cline. Go
, ing through the day of meals she will
require celery, common lettuce, ice
berg lettuce, spinach, escarole, ro-
maines, etc, without end.
Thus the shipper, the jobber, the
wholesaler, the retailer and, perhaps,
the corner stOre-grocery are con-
fronted with the necessity of distrib-
uting an infinite number of part-car
lots, part truck shipments, part crates
and split packages. With each trans
fer the element of perishability in
creases and the cost per unit to the
ultimate consumer goes up, says Mr.
Hadden.
A ship from the gulf or a ferry OF
carloads from a New Jersey terminal
lands at Manhattan in the evening
All night stevedores unload it and ar
range it for display in the central
market.
Space is SO limited that many COM
panies keep motor and horse trucks
in line for hours, to get early loads
when the market opens at $3.50 a. NJ
Between ship or car and truck is
operated a motor shuttle service, to
save room and prevent thievery. This
costs $50 a car for unloading, Mr..
MADDEN figures.
The shuttle loads the waiting
trucks which haul the produce to five
outlying jobbers' markets. The cost
is $S5 a car in Manhattan; $57 in
Harlem. The wholesaler makes his
purchases at the jobbers and hauls
them away with his own. trucks
Cost, about $25 car. Then he de-
livers to the retailer, adding another
$25 car to the ultimate cost of the
fruit and vegetables.
The retailer, if he delivers to his
customers adds the cost to his bill.
Nothing is more certain in regar.
TO the handling of fruit and vegeta
bles at New York City than that thu
terminal facilities now provided arr
rapidly becoming utterly inadequate,
is Mr.. Hedden's conclusion. It il
this problem Of terminals and tn,
rapid distribution of food that tn
Port of New York authority, aided b!
the Department of Agriculture, ha
set out to solve.