216 Appendix. 



knows what their onions are, and that they are the same from one end of the 

 sack to the other. That should apply to all kinds of fruit. 



If any house should buy a carload of fruit for shipment to the East, or 

 South, or to any other market, we would have to send a ma- to the railroad 

 station, or wherever the fruit was loaded, to inspect that car in order that we 

 might know it was all right. We would not dare send it forward until it had 

 been inspected. There is no reason for that, no reason why a man or an asso- 

 ciation should not put up fruit so we could take their word for it ; know 

 that the fruit could be shipped wherever we might direct, and that it would 

 be in condition to pass muster at its destination. The commission man, or 

 broker, should not be called upon to inspect that fruit, and if the fruit associ- 

 ations being organized tliroughout the state would see to it that the fruit is 

 reliably packed, and that it could be depended upon, the marketing of the 

 fruit would be much easier, and there would be fewer rejections and less 

 trouble, and if would be more profitable for everybody. The fruit business 

 would be profitable were it not for these rejections, and that is the thing we 

 have to contend with more than anything else. Our ideas of fancy fruit and 

 the ideas of tlie man at the other end, as to what he considers fancy fruit, may 

 differ. I do not suppose there was ever a car, or box, of fruit packed but 

 what there could be some objection taken to the quality, excepting some of 

 those apples over there (pointing to the Hood River display), and I presume 

 if a man were disposed to find fault with those he could do so if the price did 

 not exactly suit him, or the market had declined. 



As to the quality of the fruit grown here, there is no doubt but it is superior 

 to the fruit grown anywliere else in the United States. At the Pan-American 

 I'^xposition — I happened to be there for a couple of days — I thought New 

 York State, that being my native state, produced the finest apples grown out 

 of doors. The horticultural displays of New York and Oregon were close to- 

 gether, and 1 had cjpportunity to compare the apples from New York State 

 with the apples from Oregon, but the New York State apples were not in the 

 same class as those from Oregon. They did not look as large, and red, and 

 juicy as they used to to me when I was a boy, but I suppose I had forgotten 

 how they did look : anyhow, they looked small and knotty and were very 

 inferior to our own. We would not thinli of packing that kind of fruit. Tliey 

 raise great quantities of it, too, and New York State's apples are considered 

 as fine as anything grown except, perhaps, Oregon apples, and ours are not 

 well enough known to offer any competition. ..^s I said before, they raise great 

 quantities of them and sell them very cheap. This year I believe tlie growers 

 were getti.ng something like ^\ or .$1.50 a barrel for apples, and furnishing 

 the barrel. Now, you know an Oregon farmer would drop dead if he were 

 offered any such price as that. You know it takes three boxes of apples to 

 maKe a barrel. If we can produce our apples a little cheaper, and get them on 

 the New York market so they will not be as expensive as now. there is no 

 <luestion but that there is an unlimited field for Oregon apples, and the same 

 will apply to all kinds of fruit. 



I have lieen talking about apples, and I suppose I ought to say something 

 nlK.iut other things. 



First, we get the strawberries, and the first we get are from California, 

 and they are all right so long as we have no Oregon berries to eat, and we 

 dispose of large quantities of them. They are good, tliat is they are a good 

 substitute, but they are not Oregon berries ; but one thing the California people 

 do. they put up their berries in fine sliape, they are "faced up" beautifully 

 and are nice ou top, but underneath they have long stems and small berries. 

 Then come our Oregon berries, from Hood River and Southern Oregon, but 

 the Southern Oregon growers have not got in tlie way of putting tliem up in 

 nice attractive sliape. Tlie Hood River people do, I believe, for long distance 

 shipping, but not for this market, as they have to pay a little extra for "facing" 

 them up, and do not think it necessary for sliipuing to I'ortland, as they will 



