The Produce Hustlers of Western Avenue

These "Walks and Talks" may not appear regularly, but when occasion seems to demand it they will appear. They may be somewhat like the old classification of verbs — "regular, irregular and defective," and especially the last.

The business done on Western Avenue in Seattle is immense. If a stranger wants to see a busy part of this city, let him go to this avenue on a fair day and he will hear things hum. The aggregate of business done by the commission men on this thoroughfare I have no means of knowing, but it runs up into the millions of dollars. John W. Godwin once told the writer that the business of their house reached $48,000 in one month. It is claimed that the business of this house aggregates nearly a half million dollars in one year.

It will surprise some people to see what is for sale along Western Avenue. It is now what is called "the dead of winter," and yet, in passing there a day or two since, I saw for sale green peas and beans, cucumbers, pie-plant, squashes, tomatoes, oranges, lemons, pineapples, grape fruit, apples, pears, cranberries, potatoes and many other things. The men on Western Avenue are rustlers. They not only sell to the retailers of Seattle, but send out the products they handle to a great number of outlying towns, to British Columbia, Alaska, California, Japan, China and the Philippines. At certain times they ship stuff east to St. Paul, Chicago, New York and all eastern cities. One of the commission men showed me a postal card the other day from a firm in Minneapolis, making inquiry about potatoes and saying that if good "spuds" could be secured at reasonable prices they would send a man out to inspect them and would buy a large number of carloads.

In walking and talking on Western Avenue this week I find that onions are scarce and high, and are likely to go higher. Apples are firmer and are likely to bring good prices. Good four-tier Ben Davis are worth from $1 to $1.25 per box. Fancy apples, suitable for fruit stands, are scarce and high.

Some inquiries have come to The Ranch office about potatoes. One man writes from North Yakima as follows: "Would you be so kind as to state in your paper your opinion in regard to the price of potatoes in the spring? You may know a good deal about this business and some of us may profit by it."

This communication was handed to the "Walks and Talks" man. Now, I will say that I do not know very much about this business, but I have interviewed some men who do. W. T. Ferguson, of the firm of Ferguson, Klyce Co., is one of the best posted men on Western Avenue on potatoes. Mr. Ferguson says that there is a demand for potatoes east and handed me the postal from Minneapolis referred to above. He is interested in a potato ranch in the Yakima valley. He says many carloads are going east now from that valley. His reasoning is that if many Yakima "spuds" go east the price will be stiff and probably go higher in Seattle. Frank Rhodes, of the firm of A. D. Blowers Co., is a good authority on potatoes. He was interviewed and thinks potatoes will advance when the Alaska trade opens in the spring. M. C. Nason was also interviewed and takes a hopeful view of the potato market for the coming spring. All whom I interviewed say that the Yakima potato stands at the top for quality, appearance and price. They say the Palouse potato will not bring as much in the market as the Yakima potato. Potatoes are now worth from $16 to $20 per ton in the Seattle market. Out of this must come freight and commission, of course.