Page 12 



BETTER FRUIT 



September 



u 



EVERYWHERE IN THE NORTHWEST 



You will find an army of orchardists gathering their fruit 



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crops on 



HARDIE 

 Fruit Ladders 



These all spruce picking ladders merit your attention. 

 While strong they are light in weight, giving your picker 

 confidence by their strength, while their light weight does 

 not tire him. 



The Design Increases His Working Range 



In these days of increasing wages the Hardie Ladders will aid greatly in keeping picking costs at the old 

 figure through giving you a "Bigger Day's Work" from your picker. 



Stock Sizes Range from 4 to 14 feet. Price per foot 40c 



THE HARDIE MFG. CO. 



49 North Front Street 



PORTLAND, OREGON 



Not Overprocuction of Apples, But Lack of Distribution 



THK subscribers of Better Fruit 

 will recall the article entitled "Not 

 Overproduction of Apples but Lack 

 of Distribution" that appeared in the 

 July edition of Better Fruit, giving the 

 number of cars of apples sold in 1916 

 in towns of 3,000 to 5,000; the number 

 of towns sold and not sold with a popu- 

 lation of 5,000 to 10,000; the number of 

 towns sold and not sold of 10,000 to 

 20,000: the number of towns sold and 

 not sold of 20,000 to 50,000; the number 

 of towns sold and not sold of 50,000 and 

 over in each state. In addition to this 

 the article contained statistics showing 

 the names of the towns over 3,000 and 

 the population of each in each state in 

 the United States sold during 1916. 



In the August edition of Better Fruit 

 we published another article entitled 

 "More Information on Fruit Distribu- 

 tion," giving names of the towns over 

 3,000 in Minnesota, Louisiana and Ohio 

 that have not been sold. Attention is 

 called to the fact that Ohio has 117 

 towns of over 3,000 poluation, of which 

 ten have been sold and 107 not sold. In 

 every state in the Union the number of 

 towns of over 3,000 that are sold is 

 comparatively small to the towns of 

 over 3,000 unsold. It must be admitted, 

 of course, that every town in the United 

 States of over 3,000 population cannot 

 be sold. The states that produce apples 

 in large quantities do not afford so 



By E. H. Shepard, Editor of Better Fruit 



great an opportunity as the states where 

 apples are not grown commercially. It 

 must be borne in mind, of course, that 

 some Northwestern States, like Minne- 

 sota, the Dakotas and Wyoming; the 

 Southwestern States, like Texas and 

 Arizona, do not grow apples in a com- 

 mercial way. In fact, very few apples 

 are grown in the states mentioned. The 

 Southeastern States are small producers 

 of apples, although a few are grown in 

 the mountainous regions of Georgia, 

 North Carolina, some in Tennessee and 

 Kentucky, but comparatively none are 

 grown in South Carolina, Alabama, 

 Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, con- 

 sequently all of these states should be 

 large purchasers of apples. Towns 

 under 3,000 population deserve special 

 attention. The editor has taken the list 

 of towns reported sold during 1916 

 through the Fruit Growers' Agency and 

 of the Northwestern Fruit Exchange 

 from the time they commenced doing 

 business up to December 31, 1916, 

 giving the name of each town in each 

 state under 3,000 that has been sold, 

 with the population. A careful study of 

 the list will not only give some wonder- 

 ful surprises but some pretty big "jolts" 

 in showing the possibilities of the small 

 towns. The population as stated is 

 taken from the Produce Beporter Credit 

 Book, 1917, copyrighted, and in some 

 cases are probably approximate esti- 



mates. The surprising feature in look- 

 ing over the population of towns sold 

 is that even towns of only 200 popula- 

 tion have been sold, a greater number 

 of 300 to 400 have been sold and a large 

 number of towns sold around 1,000 to 

 2,000. One is led to believe that a town 

 of this population is an excellent 

 prospect for carlot shipments. The 

 natural inference would be that a town 

 of 300 to 400 would not buy carlots, but 

 it should be borne in mind that such 

 towns sometimes have a very large 

 business tributary to them containing 

 some very large general merchandise 

 stores, handling fruits such as oranges, 

 bananas and apples. 



There are over 33,000 towns in the 

 United States under 3,000 population, 

 of which only about 311 have been sold. 

 I desire to impress upon everybody 

 connected with the fruit industry the 

 importance of selling Northwestern 

 apples direct. The reasons for direct 

 business are twofold. When a small or 

 medium town is sold direct instead of 

 through some big city, two extra cart- 

 ages are saved and one extra freight 

 bill and one intermediate profit, which 

 may vary all the way from 20 to 40 

 cents. Three extra handlings are 

 avoided, two cartages and one railway 

 shipment, which means the apples can 

 be delivered to the consumer in better 

 condition. Another important reason is 



