fruit they put up to can as much
of their surplus as possible by the use of boiling water when sugar
sirup is beyond their means. Any fruit, they say, may be successfully
sterilized and retained in the pack by simply adding boiling water
instead of the hot sirup. The use of sugar, of course, is desirable in
the canning of all kinds of fruits and makes a better and ready
sweetened product. Moreover, most of the fruits when canned in water
alone do not retain their natural flavor, texture and color as well as
fruit put up in sirup. Fruit canned without sugar to be used for sauces
or desserts must be sweetened.

Fruit Retail Methods and Costs.

CLARENCE W. MOOMAW AND M.M. STEWART, FRUIT AND PRODUCE MARKETERS,
PORTLAND, OREGON.

On studying the various phases of city apple marketing, special
attention was given to retail methods and costs. The purpose of this
study was chiefly to learn whether the wholesale supply controls the
price. The cost of operation as a factor in determining retail prices
also was investigated as far as possible.

Retail apple distributors may be classed as follows:

(a) Fruit-stand vendors.

(b) Fancy grocers, fruiterers, etc., catering almost exclusively to
high-class or fashionable trade and doing a very extensive credit
business.

(c) Grocers catering to a cheaper class of trade, largely upon a cash
basis.

(d) Hucksters or street peddlers.

Relatively high prices were charged for apples purchased at fruit
stands. Extra fancy Northwestern and Colorado Jonathans were sold to the
dealers during October and November at prices ranging from $1 to $1.25
per box. Apples which grade 150 to the box retailed at two for five
cents, or $3.75 per box. This meant a gross profit of about 250 per
cent. In the ninety-six size, extra fancy Jonathans sold at three for
ten cents, or $3.20 per box, showing a gross profit of about 200 per
cent.

In the East Side tenement section of New York City it was learned that
by reason of the cheap prices prevailing and the heavy supply of apples
arriving the peddlers were operating to the detriment of fruit stands.
The fruit-stand dealers were selling only about one-third to one-half
the quantity of fruit handled in former seasons. The pushcart and wagon
peddlers as a rule buy packed or loose fruit cheap and go direct to the
homes of the residents, selling at prices considerably below the
fruit-stand men. The peddlers handle a large quantity, make quick c