Page 20 



BETTER FRUIT 



HOOD RIVER. OREGON 



Official Organ of Tlie Northwest Fruit. Growers' Assoination 

 A Monthly Illustrated Magazine Published in the 

 Interest of Modem Fruit Growing and Marketing 



All Communications Should Be Addressed and Remittances 

 Made Payable to 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



E. H. SHKPHERI). E.iilur and Publisher 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON 



C. I. I^iTis, HortiouIturlBt CorvaHis 



H. S. Jackson, Pathologist Corvallis 



WASHINGTON 



Dr. A. L. Melander, Enlomologist Pullman 



O. M. Morris, Horticulturist Pullman 



W. S. Thoniber, Horticulturist Pullman 



COLORADO 



C. P. Gillette, Director and Entomologist Fort Collins 



E. B. House, Chief of Department of Civil and Irrigation 



Engineering. State .\gricultural College Fort Collina 



E. P. Taylor, Horticnllurist Grand Junction 



IDAHO 



W. H. Wicks, HorticuUurisI Moscow 



UTAH 



Dr. E, D, Ball. Director and Entomologist Logan 



MONTANA 



O. B. Whipple, Horticulturist Bozeman 



CALIFORNIA 



C. W, Woodworth, Entomologist BerKeley 



W. H. Volck. Entomologist Watsonville 



Leon D. Batchelor. Horticulturist Riverside 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 

 R. M Winslow, Provincial Horticulturist Victoria 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: 



In the United States, $1.00 per year in advance 



Canada and foreign, including postage, $1.50 



ADVERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION 



Entered as second-class matter December 27, 19C6, at the 



Postofflce at Hood River, Oregon, under Act 



of Congress of March 3, 1S79. 



What is the matter with us fruit- 

 growers of the Northwest? In the 

 Sacramento Valley, California, the liulk 

 of deciduous fruit is handled by the 

 California Fruit Distributors in a very 

 successful way under the able manage- 

 ment of Mr. Virden. Good prices have 

 been obtained year after year on the 

 average, paying the grower a good 

 profit on the investment. The Califor- 

 nia Fruit Distributors is an incorpo- 

 rated concern. In Southern California 

 the bulk of the tonnage in oranges, 

 lemons and grapefruit is handleil by 

 the California P'ruit Growers' Ex- 

 change, under the very able manage- 

 ment of G. Harold Powell. The Cali- 

 fornia Fruit Growers' Exchange has 

 met with phenomenal success. A few 

 years ago when the orange industry of 

 Southern California amounted to 1400 

 cars per year, it was universally con- 

 ceded that the industry was overdone. 

 The California F^ruit Growers' Ex- 

 change has develoijed and created a 

 demand and sale for a steadily and 

 rajjidh- increasing volume, totaling 

 annually over ,50,000 cars, obtaining 

 good prices, prices that pay the grower 

 a satisfactory profit on the investment. 

 The California Fruit Growers' Ex- 

 change is a model co-operative institu- 

 tion. The raisin growers of California 

 organized an association which has 

 pulled this industry out of the slough 

 of despondency. The walnut growers 

 of California have probably the most 

 thorough organization of any, control- 

 ling ijiaetically the entire output of 

 that state, and ai'e so strong that they 

 practically dominate prices at which 

 walnuts are sold. 



Now, about the Northwest for com- 

 parison. Up and down, now and then, 

 here and there, has been the situation 

 for years. A few years ago the fruit- 

 growers became dissatisfied with mar- 

 keting through individuals, shipping on 

 consignment or selling f.o.b. to ca.sh 



BETTER FRUIT 



buyers, and started a crusade for asso- 

 ciations. The result was in a few- 

 years over one hundred fruitgrowers' 

 associations were formed in the North- 

 west. Every district had its organiza- 

 tion and many of them were exceed- 

 ingly good ones. At first they were all 

 supported and met with excellent suc- 

 cess, then the kicking began and mem- 

 bers withdrew. The Northwestern Fruit 

 Exchange was created a few years ago, 

 with modern conveniences, systematic 

 business methods, splendid equipment, 

 large connections, under the manage- 

 ment of able men. Then the North 

 Pacific Fruit Distributors was created, 

 a mutual co-operative organization, 

 organized by able fruitgrowers, repre- 

 senting every district of the Northwest, 

 a child of their own creation, after 

 their own ideas, owned and controlled 

 by themselves. But it failed to get the 

 fruitgrowers' support and at no time 

 did they control tonnage in excess of 

 about 50 per cent. The fruitgi-owers 

 did not support what they had created 

 and again were not satisfied. In 1915, 

 the growers, after a year of dissatis- 

 faction in 1914, organized the Fruit 

 Growers' Council and Board of Con- 

 trol. Representatives and chosen dele- 

 gates to the number of about 300 from 

 every section of Oregon, Washington, 

 Idaho and Montana met together in two 

 meetings, which lasted several days 

 and several nights. Everybody got 

 what they wanted; everything was 

 done the way the fruit growers wanted 

 it done; they created an institution after 

 their own ideas and were the bosses. 

 You know the result. The Northwest- 

 ern Fruit Growers' Council was never 

 supported by the growers, and the very 

 growers who had formed it refused to 

 put up the small sum of one-quarter of 

 a cent per box to finance it. 



East year the government, on the 

 urgent retpiest of the fruit industry of 

 the Northwest, business men and bank- 

 ers, sent government odicials to the 

 Northwest to study the fruit industry. 

 They paid their own expenses, they 

 asked no ])ay, they wanted only infor- 

 mation. Did they get if? In 1915 there 

 were 9400 cars of apples shipped. All 

 the government asked was that every 

 shippei- should report the destination 

 of the cars shipped. Less than one- 

 half, or about 4500 cars, reported desti- 

 nation of tonnage. One-half of the 

 fruitgrowers helped the government by 

 giving information they asked for, the 

 other half not only did not, but blocked 

 the wheels of progress. The fruit situ- 

 ation in the Northwest looks similar 

 to the condition existing in the United 

 States at the time of the Civil War — 

 about one-half of the United States 

 supported the United States govern- 

 ment, the other half did not. The 

 United States came near going busted. 

 They fought it out to a finish and 

 finally all agreed in peace to support 

 the United States government, and 

 today the United States is the most 

 wonderful country in the world. So 

 it may be with us fruitgrowers of the 

 Northwest. We may go busted. Half 

 of us want to support organization, 



April 



government control, and orderly, intel- 

 ligent marketing of the crop — the other 

 half have never supported such a move- 

 ment. Will we go busted, or can we 

 agree on peace terms and universally 

 support organization, government, con- 

 trol and orderly distribution? Gov- 

 ernment ofilcials who have given the 

 matter study for nearly two years, who 

 have no axe to grind and get no pay 

 for what they are doing, who have no 

 other interests than to help us, state 

 that the fruit industry of the Northwest 

 can only be put on a proper paying 

 basis through organization and orderly 

 control. 



The Newtown Pippin. — The Newtown 



Pippin is rated by the American Pomo- 

 logical Society at nine to ten. This 

 rating is only exceeded by one other 

 apple for quality, viz., the Spitzenburg, 

 which is given a rating of ten. The 

 Newtown Pippin originated on Long 

 Island, New York, from where trees 

 were obtained and the apple quite ex- 

 tensively planted in Virginia and along 

 the Hudson River. Later this apple 

 was introduced on the Pacific Coast. 

 The number of districts where the New- 

 town can be grown successfully and 

 is grown in a commercial way are com- 

 paratively few, — fewer than any other 

 variety of apple and more limited in 

 area. The producing districts grow- 

 ing a quantity of the Newtown Pippin 

 are the Hudson River; Virginia; Pajaro 

 Valley, California; Rogue River Valley 

 and Hood River Valley, Oregon: Yaki- 

 ma and Walla Walla Valleys, Wash- 

 ington. While the Newtown Pippin is 

 produced in a small way in a few other 

 sections on the Pacific Coast it is not 

 grown anywhere extensively except in 

 the districts above named. The New- 

 town Pippin keeps in excellent condi- 

 tion until about April; in cold storage 

 it keeps in excellent condition until 

 .July and August. It does not mature 

 sufiiciently to be a good eating apple 

 until in December, but from that time 

 on it is not surpassed for flavor, juici- 

 ness or quality by any other variety. 

 If you will read the little article 

 reproduced in this issue as to the 

 origin of the Newtown Pippin it will 

 give you a splendid idea of the popu- 

 larity of this apple in Europe, more 

 particularly in England, Scotland and 

 Germany, where the imjiorts exceed 

 any other variety of apple grown on 

 the Pacific Coast. The popularity of 

 this apple abroad, where people have 

 to pay a great deal more for it on 

 account of freight, than they do for 

 home-grown apples, should be suiricient 

 evidence to convince any thinking indi- 

 vidual there is every reason to assume 

 the Newtown Pippin should be .just as 

 popular throughout the United States 

 in the late winter months as abroad. 

 The fact of the matter is the Newtown 

 Pippin never has been properly dis- 

 tiibuted, or even introduced or an 

 attempt made to introduce it of any 

 importance in any of the consuming 

 centers of the United Slates outside of 

 the City of New York. This is ex- 

 cusable for the reason that in inevious 



