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BETTER FRUIT 



An Illustrated Miigazine Devoted to the Interests 



of Modern Kruit Growing and Marketing. 



Published Monthly 



liy 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



703 Oregonian Building 

 POllTLAND, ORKGON 



Capitalizing the Fruit Industry 



The tendency of several large organ- 

 izations which have been organized 

 more or less recently to enter the fruit 

 industry seems to be toward capitali- 

 zation and cutting out the middle, or 

 commission man. The American Fruit 

 Growers' Inc., a .'FIOO.OOO.OOO corpora- 

 tion, which has already acquired §3,- 

 500,000 worth of orchard property 

 and has options on other large hold- 

 ings, and the Appalachian Corpora- 

 tion, a company owning orchards in 

 Georgia and Missouri and operating a 

 large warehouse in New Orleans, an- 

 nounce that they are adopting a course 

 to reach the consumer in as direct a 

 manner as possible — that is, that they 

 will sell to the wholesaler and the re- 

 tailer, but not to the commission man. 



The big Southern corporation seems 

 to be doing business on a straight-out 

 producing and sales basis, as it makes 

 no announcement of stock for sale or 

 the listing of its securities on the open 

 market. The prospectus of the Ameri- 

 can Fruit Growers' Inc., which states 

 that its securities will be listed on the 

 stock exchange, smacks slightly of 

 equivocal benevolence toward the con- 

 sumer and the producer. One of the 

 reasons that it gives for the formation 

 of its organization is that it fears that 

 the consumer will have to pay ex- 

 tremely high prices for fruit products 

 during the next five years, owing to 

 lessened production on account of ex- 

 cess profit taxes, and that it is taking 

 a course that it believes will stabilize 

 the market. 



AVhile the course adopted by this 

 organization may have this tendency, 

 this result can only be determined by 

 its future operations. If these result 

 in making a fair price to both pro- 

 ducer and consumer the American 

 Fruit Growers' Inc. will, indeed, have 

 served a great purpose in the fruit 

 industry. 



Perhaps it would have inspired 

 greater confidence in the minds of the 

 public, however, if this big company 

 had stated that there never was a time 

 in the history of the fruit industry 

 when the opportunity was so great to 

 capitalize it on a big scale and secure 

 so great a reward. New methods and 

 new practices are making fruit a 

 staple, rather than a perishable prod- 

 uct, and it is on the boards for it to 

 take its place in the marts of trade 

 along with the meats and cereals. 



The organization of the fruit indus- 

 try by large corporations on a huge 

 scale may benefit the producer an 

 the consumer, but not if it is con- 

 ducted along the lines employed bv 

 many of the big food handling inter- 

 ests which tell the producer what he 

 can get for his products and the con- 

 sumer what he must pay for them. 



BETTER FRUIT 



The culling out of the middleman both 

 in Iheory and practice is correct. But 

 if neillier producer or consumer gets 

 the hencfit of this cutting. oul i)rocess 

 "whal dolh it benefit us?" 



As it is apparently the plan of the 

 big companies above iiienlioiicd to 

 grow Iheir own producis, the pro- 

 ducer in this case should not suffer. 

 We will await with interest, therefore, 

 what hapijcns to the consumer. 



August, Ipip 



ily of Oregon institutions. It can be 

 safely assumed, therefore, that these 

 inslilutions will be fairly dealt with. 



A Worthy Object 



In 1900, and for several years suc- 

 ceeding, the prune industry was at its 

 lowest ebb. A California grower is 

 said to have remarked during this 

 period that the large prunes were more 

 useful than the small ones, as they 

 could be thrown straighler at offend- 

 ing cats and dogs than the small ones. 



The history of the prune industry 

 in California is identical with that of 

 Oregon. This condition in the prune 

 industry is ascribed to the maniupla- 

 tion of the prune operators in Cali- 

 fornia and the lack of distribution and 

 creation of demand. The later regen- 

 eration of the prune with its attendant 

 prosperity to growers is credited to 

 the organization of the California 

 Prune and Apricot Growers' Associa- 

 tion, which controlled the tonnage, 

 advertised, created the luarket and set 

 the price at what it considered a fair 

 return to the grower. 



Next to the citrus fruits the prune 

 industry is now California's greatest 

 asset in the fruit business. In Oregon 

 it is the greatest asset in the state's 

 entire fruit industry. 



Oregon growers are now endeavor- 

 ing to do for Oregon prunes and other 

 fruits what California growers did for 

 California — to stabilize the industry, to 

 ship Oregon fruits under an Oregon 

 brand and to bring prosperity to the 

 growers and the state in general. 



This, in brief, is the whole story of 

 the object of the Oregon Gro\vers' 

 Co-operalive Asociation. And its a 

 good story and a worthy object. 



Protecting Oregon Investments 

 The fear that the large aiuount of 

 capital already invested in Oregon 

 fruit canning and by-products, plants 

 will be jeopardized by the operations 

 of the Oregon Growers' Co-operative 

 Association is groundless. The pri- 

 mary object of the association is to 

 obtain a fair price for the members 

 of the organization for their fruit 

 products in the various districts. If 

 this is accomplished by selling to man 

 ufacturing concerns or other fruit 

 handlers that are already in the busi- 

 ness, it will probably not be the policy 

 of the association to enter into manu- 

 facturing competition where the re- 

 turn to the grower is satisfactory. 

 Where no plants are established it is 

 the intention of the organization to 

 erect them. 



The officers and organization coiu- 

 mittee of the association are Oregon 

 business men as well as fruit growers. 

 The membership of the association is 

 coiuposed of Oregon citizens inter- 

 ested in the development and prosper- 



Editorial Comment 

 Wliich would you rather he: John 

 I). Rockefeller or a loganberry grower? 



Apple prices are soaring and so are 

 freight rates. Don't take it all, rail- 

 road men. 



The fruit grower who adopts the 

 latest labor-saving appliances these 

 days will accumulate the biggest bank 

 roll. 



Jack Frost must be feeling badly. 

 He, no doubt, tried hard, but he 

 couldn't get the Idaho apple crop this 

 year. It's a bumper. 



While the "coming hiifV" of the Ore- 

 gon prune provides H. S. Gile with the 

 opportunity of saying "I told you so," 

 still we are all glad to hear it. 



Elbert Hubbard said that fruit was 

 nature's handmaiden in creating op- 

 timism. If this is true, it should be 

 on every table in every household. 



The apple growers of Washington are 

 .spending $500,000 to advertise their 

 fruit this year. That's why the Wash- 

 ingtonians are always forging ahead. 

 They are never afraid to spend a dol- 

 lar to get two back. 



The California State Horticultural 

 Commission is a live institution. Noth- 

 ing is too big or too small for it to 

 tackle, and it makes a success of it. 

 The liberal appropriations it is al- 

 lowed, however, are a big help. 



Cranberry culture is assuming an 

 important place in the fruit industry 

 of the Northwest, and the most salient 

 feature of this fact is that the Pacific 

 Coast berry is a superior product to 

 that grown in other districts. 



The expansion of the fruitgrowing 

 industry of the Northwest is now only 

 a matter of securing nursery stock. It 

 is estimated that the United States is 

 short several millions of trees to sup- 

 ply the normal demand for fruit. 



The research work of the Experi- 

 ment Station of the Oregon Agricul- 

 tural College is bearing good fruit. In- 

 formation that this institution has ob- 

 tained on pollenization and fertiliza- 

 tion of fruit trees alone is proving of 

 incalculable value to the fruit grower. 



The fruit grower, like the farmer 

 in other branches, doesn't take kindly 

 to the daylight saving "bunk." He 

 can't see why the golf and tennis play- 

 ers, the twilight baseball leagues an, 

 the fellows that don't have to get up 

 until noon should run the country. 

 Neither do we. 



The silver tongued orators are not 

 all in Congress. When it comes to en- 

 thralling a group of fruit growers, 

 Prof. C. I. Lewis, organization man- 

 ager of the Oregon Growers' Co-opera- 

 tive Association, is some Wm. J. Bryan 

 hiiuself — and he gives them something 

 worth listening to. 



