Page 8 



BETTER FRUIT 



September 



The Apple as a Farm Product— History 



By A. Millard, Jr., Hood River, Oregon. 



CHAPTER VI Fiftv-flve or 60 cents, then, plus 35 to 



The Ultimate Limits of Production. 50 cents gives 90 ^ents to $1 10 plus 



overhead charges, which must be re- 



THE ultimate limits of the produc- reived as wholesale prices in New York 



tion of apples may be reduced to before the Western grower can make a 



two things: the cost and returns of profit. With 1912 and 1914 prices very 



the apple orchard and the consumption jjjjjg '^^^^ 9i,\M), and 1913 prices less, 



of apples. Either heading, in one sense, ^^ pg^ ^gp jjjat ^g Jq ^ot appear to be 



includes the other, and various head- fgj. j-^q^^ (j,g p^j^t at which Western 



ings might be worked out to include or growers can no longer raise apples, 



to subdivide one or both of the above, Farmers' Bulletin No. 615, United 



but for the discussion of the underlying states Department of Agriculture, gives 



principles, these two are as apt as any. ^j^^ following figures on the average 



In the previous chapters we have sev- ^^-^^^ received per bushel by growers 



eral times hinted at the direct depend- jjjg country over. This is interesting, 



ence of production upon the profit or j^^j without other data on the same 



loss made by the grower. The principle apples, it is of little value for com- 



is simply that apples or any other crop parison 



will be produced as long as a profit can xi_prices received by growers 



be made, and will cease to be produced p^^ barrel of apples. 



above the amount that will bring a Year juneis July 15 Aug. 15 



profit. With a long-time crop, the ex- 1910 No data $0.77 No data 



tremes are true; a very low profit will I9ii ; N° ^ata .95 No data 



be accepted on apples before the ex- 1913 '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'..'. 1.01 .86 ?o.68 



pensive orchard will be taken out or 1914 1.36 .91 .75 



allowed to "go back," where with pota- Prices are to tend to be at least as low 

 toes the farmer can next year leave this as they are at present — lower prices 

 crop out of his rotation. This is the will tend toward greater consumption, 

 sum of the only logical conclusion that and the pressure of the competition 

 can be made from any observations of forced by lower prices will cause the 

 supply and demand in farm products, lowering of the cost of production, 

 and the principle can only be amplified. This is the most important phase of the 

 Data on the cost of producing apples question. The writer has spent the 

 that is accurate enough to be used for past two summers in Hood River, Ore- 

 calculations is not available. The ab- gon, and in that short time has seen the 

 sence of such data is only explainable change from the expensive policy of 

 by the fact that the very important "clean cultivation is the only thing" to 

 science of cost accounts in agriculture a general trend for intercropping and 

 is a new one. Though cost accounts farm diversification. The by-product 

 on annual crops have been carefully side of this discussion is a very prom- 

 worked out in detail in New York, Min- ising one (Mr. Shepard estimates a sav- 

 nesota and alsewhere, dependable fig- ing of from .$10 to $20 an acre from 

 ures for the production cost of apples, this source), and the phase of savings 

 including the six to ten unproductive in distribution discussed in Chapter II. 

 first years, will not have been worked will undoubtedly have much effect in 

 out for several years. Estimates are this direction. 



valuable in the absence of such exact The costs, then, may be lowered, and 



data, and the most reliable of which the the returns will be a slight profit of 



writer is aware are given here. necessity, but the marginal profit will 



For 6.1 acres, containing 234 apple tend to be low. Our conclusion is iden- 



trees of mixed varieties and ages, over tical with our first premise: apples will 



a ten-year period, M. C. Burritt, of be produced at any profit, and below 



Cornell University, found the average profit they will not be produced, 



yearly cost per barrel of apples to be The various phases of consumption 



$1.08. As regards Western box fruit, of apples have been or will be treated 



Mr. Shepard estimates the total harvest- elsewhere in this work, and here it is 



ing cost of a box as reducable to 30 only necessary to sum up the question, 



cents. (Under unfavorable circum- To begin with, apples have always been 



stances his own cost was 35.9 cents.) the most popular and the leading fruit 



From estimates, Mr. Shepard believes in this country, and this is a great 



that about 30 cents will cover all cost advantage to the apple industry. The 



of growing, from the end of one har- consumption depends to a large degree 



vest to the beginning of the next, not upon price, and the prices are to be 



including interest on investment. This low, so we can count upon increased 



makes 60 cents as a minimum, to which consumption from this lowering of 



35 to 55 cents per box must be added as prices. There is the most intense sort 



the water or rail rate to New York, of competition going on between the 



The overhead (interest, etc.) charges various fruits; this will strongly tend 



that must be added to this varies with against increased consumption of ap- 



the land value, and is best not included pies. The apple has some advantages 



here in considering one of the Western over other fruits; oranges cannot be 



orchard communities where land values cooked unless jellied, but the rate at 



are so unsettled, descending, as they which the grape-fruit has been taken 



have, from ridiculous boom prices to an up in the last few years is assurance of 



indefinite, much lower status, with not the mobility of public taste in fresh 



enough land transfers to fix the cost, fruit. The story of the banana, the 



and Present Status 



poor man's fruit, is discussed in this 

 treatise. Extending consumption by 

 advertising and standardizing promises 

 much within certain limits; these topics 

 are discussed later. Various grades of 

 apples are consumed, and the demand 

 for the most expensive fruit is very 

 limited. Such consumption buys to 

 please its eyes, but the great consump- 

 tion which affects the whole of the 

 industry is the consumption of the 

 lower grades of fruit. But one other 

 factor need be mentioned. This is the 

 population increase. Increased popu- 

 lation means increased markets, but 

 the markets will become none the less 

 competitive. 



CHAPTER VII. 

 What We Have Today. 



In this chapter we will take up five 

 of the most important phases of the 

 present apple industry. We will take 

 these up in the following order: 

 Apples, staple or luxury; distributing 

 organizations and individual or co-op- 

 erative selling; increasing the demand 

 — standardizing and advertising; com- 

 petition of other fruits; and, finally, the 

 various markets. 



Apples are not at all a necessary of 

 food. Fruits are not a necessary of 

 food, since proteins, carbohydrates and 

 fats can be obtained in more concen- 

 trated and cheaper forms in other 

 foods. Much less, then, is any one fruit 

 a necessary of food, since any other 

 of many fruits can substitute for it. 

 The query as to whether apples are 

 a staple or a luxury is of no im- 

 portance. It is not worth settling, 

 since it is but a matter of definition. 

 The farther from a aluxury that apples 

 will appear, due to the extent of the 

 habit of their use and to the price 

 at which they are sold, the greater 

 will be the consumption. Apples will 

 appear as a staple if the price is low 

 enough. Bananas are a staple to a great 

 number among our foreign population 

 who have become accustomed to this 

 fruit. Apples are selling wholesale and 

 retail right beside oranges, grape-fruit, 

 bananas and what not, and the price 

 cannot but be an all-important factor 

 to the buyers of these fruits. Elastic 

 demand increases in about direct pro- 



