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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1902 | 3 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1904 | 4 |
12 stories matching commiss
- Farmers Take On the Commission Men—and Demand Weekly Checks
Yakima growers propose a $5,000 bond for produce brokers, while Sumner farmer W. H. Paulhamus recalls how organized producers stopped getting 'did' by middlemen.
- Seattle's Fruit Brokers Declared War on the Shrinking Apple Box
In a market where every Puget Sound mill cut its own crate, Seattle commission men pushed a uniform standard—and growers demanded $5,000 bonds to keep the middlemen honest.
- The $2,000 Apple Lesson: A Walk Down Seattle's Produce Row
A farm columnist tours Seattle's commission houses on Western Avenue, where a single packing mistake cost one grower a season's profit — and offers a cautionary tale for every farmer shipping to the city.
- The One-Armed Commission Man Who Took Yakima Farmers for $4,000
A Selah farmer travels to Seattle's federal grand jury to haul a smooth-talking produce swindler back from California — and the stationery he left behind may be the evidence that hangs him.
- Klondike Hero's Company Folds, Creditors Left Short
A Seattle commission firm fails, and its famous president T.S. Lippy claims no moral obligation to creditors who trusted his name.
- The Produce Hustlers of Western Avenue
A newspaperman walks Seattle's commission district and finds winter vegetables, Yakima potatoes and shipments bound for Alaska, Asia and the East.
- The Fruit Broker Who Shipped Bananas to the Arctic—and Planned to Make His Employees Co-Owners
J. B. Powles buys out Seattle's oldest commission house, revealing a rags-to-fortune run built on produce, Alaska trade and an unusual plan to share ownership with his workers.
- The Business of the Orchard
A Yakima Valley fruit grower shares his pragmatic, profit-driven approach to orchard management, from battling codling moths to the economics of the Ben Davis apple.
- Before Pike Place: Seattle's Push for a Public City Market
An 1904 farm-paper editorial argued that Seattle lagged behind smaller eastern cities by lacking a daily public market where rural producers could sell directly to consumers — a proposal that anticipated Pike Place Market by three years.
- One Can of Prunes, Five Carloads of Orders
A journalist-turned-farmer with ten acres of unsellable strawberries builds a canning business in Olympia — and discovers that a pretty label sells middle America on Puget Sound fruit.
- Washington Dairymen Declare War on a Seattle Butter Dealer
At a dairy convention, producers accuse a Seattle dealer of cold-storing eastern butter and mislabeling it to break the market—and call for an organized, public fight.
- A Creameryman Confesses: 'Our Business Conditions Are Rotten'
In an unusually candid letter to The Ranch, the manager of the Rockwood Creamery Co. says reckless price-cutting and smooth-talking rivals are cheating Washington dairy farmers and quietly ruining the state's butter.