Show THE I 1 FRUIT MARKET As one ot of the members of the butali fruit ruit exchange and knowing our ti fruit mit crop to a certain limit must go on auction market I 1 wish to have published tor for the benefit of the people the doings of the auction market as it Is each day as found by myself of course some things might be a little discouraging but it should be represented as it Is and no other way I 1 think As one walks across the steel bridge over the chicago river going morth on state and dark clark streets he notices on the bank ot of the river to the left a low two story brick building on the side of which reads the public auction sales building tor for the city of chicago stepping down some iron steps a to the left two thirds of the way over the bridge you enter the east end of the auction market three or tour four east rooms on oil th the second floor are devoted to offices next come the auction rooms proper in which are forty school desks a black board to the front also on the side a long table upon the stand and a single stool in front of a single high perched seat where sits the auctioneer we ave will now go below on the story and see what Is taki taking ag place this house built on the waters edge as is within four feet of the side tracks irom from any railroad so cars are run to lo the building facing the draw doors the men to whom the cars are consigned have the seals broken and the commence the of unloading at 3 a TO in the morning the fruit belonging to john doe of sherries each variety being placed in irregular order on the floor in heights spending upon liow how many john doe lied had after the cars of cherries ire are all placed in order at the men io to w whom bom the cars were consigned come to the building carrying their car sheets heets or consignment sheets they iBach L aab have openers and commence on a separate mans mails lot to open probably every other one and sometimes every one listing condition ot of fruit and number spoiled or broken the rhe fruit is handled direct from car and candled h addled carefully one good tea fea iture ot of auction market so far the oregon cherries are very fine luo mostly bings and lamberts well packed but poorly labeled as to color 1 labell t the lewiston idaho cherries teemed to be as to quality th alie e best tor or equal to the others well packed dibut main box poorly stamped being pla inon ends and having no color end ilaban Ua halB the t he Cali fornias were well pac packed kea best la belled but no better pack then lewiston or oregon now as to pack of cherries we have the regular or or pack even rows and average fruit per 9 or 10 lows then we have the CARTON CARTO N pack little packages of card board boxes in a 10 pound case laid from top to bottom then ue ie have two layers of royal ann around outer edge dri inner part filled with nith blacks then benave we rave nave the rectangle each half of ithe bux or alternate corner of royal anu AAU ami daigs then we have every other tow ROAN ann and bings in common now cots should come gia at or of course some of californi ia aa cots are small and not so well colored wrt well packed tragedy ts U 0 C femrit fe mait 5 maynard burbank tag and red june and where tle were laid the main point was to have cich in the same direction and a god heights above abode the main rim of th our oar cup cases the peaches is io far have come in four basket crates mostly alexanders the commission market though received two cars in regular old fashioned bushel baskets ot of 60 pounds all red and ripe the prunes were laid sag gag and good stock of course you can say practically these are the first of the plums so naturally vo would ex hect a high price out of our 20 cars today I 1 prunes i cherries 12 plums 3 mixed now well go up stairs as it is nino nina sharp and the auctioneer ha has swung his gavel on oil the anvil lor for work 52 men were there to bid on 20 cars u fruit representing 22 2 V 4 millions of oe veople people besides 21 millions more of 0 neighboring neighbor frig cities that are supplied thru them the auctioneer takes a swallow of 0 water and reads with lightening speed number ot of cases broken number of 0 cases spoiled each man in the room Is furnished duplicates of each car and each card is same as auctioneer has A roan man from the house asks for no ass 12 cases plums 14 cases cherries then the auctioneer yells how much am I 1 bid for 12 start atari it olt off of course the man who wants this fruit made a first price then it could be raised by anyone As a general rule the man who is bidding was not overbid over bid ten times for example the man behind me asked for no 10 royal ann 62 cases ile he bid 65 cents no one raise him ile he said to his partner 1 I 1 ga g A 12 X i cherries on that rid rad it if a man wants 40 cases of a certain lot and two others want it also then the auctioneer divides up leaving as a general rule no over bidders after the auction is over you go to the office pay for your fruit and it must be removed before 12 noon the same day my opinion as to the auction market it seems as though to get 43 45 or 50 men bidders control the prices and pay their own price for fruit from hundreds of growers that the system is not right we who grow fruit would like to see general public auctions where the lie public thousands could bid and pay what was about right after from 5 to 25 bids instead of at presenta man selecting what he wants his price and over halt half the time not having in a i second bid made of course of this this auction market I 1 was assured the money at 6 p ni tor for all fruit sold that day so we growers would have the money within 21 hours after arrival of fruit now for the crop utah has cars El bertas colorado has cars of El bertas texas has 2000 cars El bertas nebraska has 1000 cars El bertas these peaches come within 30 or 40 0 das of our peaches remember chicago can call use daily cars then hen take ake the other circuit of large medium smaller cities many cars are consumed now I 1 think there are markets that will average daily higher prices than this immense city in fact for every sort of fruit I 1 am on the auction market regularly and feel that under present methods of auctioning prices medium decent axe ate not reliable in this great city to have the people work hard raise crops put reliance on certain prices and then have the fruit auctioned I 1 think they had beter figure on other markets DANIEL F HARDING |