April, 1920 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 29 



l^[pmi!m ftitiiftftaaaflaaiiiiii9W9aai)i!ii}Mii]i flafliiftftaaaaaiiiifl i>rtrtftfti>rtiiM 

 Handle Things by Gravity 



EVERY pair of hands and legs you 

 relieve from lugging, wheeling or 

 hauling crates, barrels, boxes, etc., from 

 place to place, immediately becomes 

 available for more productive work. 

 And when you do that costs start to 

 drop ; output and profits increase. 



The Mathews steel ball-bearing Roll- 

 er Conveyer not only takes the place of 

 human labor, but it entails no expense 

 for power. Gravity operates it! 



The Mathews carries most anything 

 most anywhere — over, under or around 

 obstacles, or straight-away. Portable 

 or permanent installation. No upkeep 

 worth mentioning; never goes on strike; 

 demands no pay envelope; incurs no 

 power bills ! 



Our engineers' suggestions as to how 

 and w^here the Mathews can be made 

 profitable to you cost nothing. W^rite. 



Packing, vfrarehoasin^ sn& shipping; Inndin^ and unload- 

 ing cars, trucks and wagons—all can ho accomplished 

 more quickly and more cheaply withthe Mathews Gravity 

 Conveyer. A size and style for every purpose. 



GRf^m 



CONVEYER 



MATHEWS GRAVITY CARRIER CO. 



133 Tenth Street, EUwood City, Pa. 

 Cranch Factories ; Port Hope, On t a rio— London, England 



What They're Doing in California 



Sufflcient -water for the coming growing sea- 

 son is reported to be the one big thing that is 

 now occupying the attention of the farmers and 

 fruit growers of California. In the Santa Clara 

 Valley not only farmers and fruit growers, but 

 the business men as well have been actively 

 engaged for the past two months in the prelim- 

 inary work of organizing to perfect some sys- 

 tem of conserving and increasing the under- 

 ground supply i>f water for irrigation pur- 

 poses. 



Good prune orchards in the Santa Clara 

 Valley are reported to be still holding up in 

 price and $2,000 per acre is the figure quoted 

 for good producing orchards. Many growers 

 there, it is stated, have refused to sell at this 

 price. Those who are looking into fruitland 

 prices closely in California say that whether 

 such values can be maintained depends upon 

 the quantity and quality of the coming season's 

 crop and the base price to be fixed by the Cali- 

 fornia Prune and Apricot Growers' Association. 



The diversity of fruit and vegetable ship- 

 ments from some of the districts in California 

 make interesting reading. As an instance: 

 "There were 5731 carloads of products shipped 

 from Turlock during the year 1919, which is 

 the largest in its history. Cantaloupes led the 

 list with 2719 cars. The list as given out by 

 the two raihoads is as follows: Beans, 113 

 cars; barley, 98 cars; cantaloupes, 2719 cars; 

 canned goods, 209 cars; casabas, 296 cars; 

 dried fruit, 71 cars; grain, 220 cars; corn, 5fi 

 cars; grapes, 307 cars; hay, 13 cars; Honey 

 Dew melons, 41 cars; livestock, 170 cars; 

 peaches, 79 cars; peach pits, 3 cars; Persian 

 melons, 3 cars; spinach, 9 cars; sweet potatoes, 

 203 cars; watermelons, 1037 cars; miscella- 

 neous, 84 cars. 



P. J. Dreher was recently elected president 

 of the California Fruit Growers' Exchange. Mr. 

 Dreher has been identified with the citrus fruit 

 industry of the state since 1886 and was one 

 of the leaders in perfecting the system now in 

 use there of cooperative marketing of citrus 

 fruits. 



Realizing the strength and permanency of 

 the California Fruit Growers' Exchange it is 

 reported that independent citrus fruit opera- 



tors are contemplating an organization to rep- 

 resent them in their operations in the citrus 

 fruit belt. This move is said to be due to the 

 gradual extension of the cooperative organiza- 

 tion which is reported to be handling 72 per 

 cent of the citrus fruit crop of California. 

 One of the features which the independent 

 organization is proposing is to buy the fruit it 

 handles on a spot cash basis. 



Wine grape growers in California are so en- 

 couraged over the success attained last year 

 in drying their product and the satisfactory 

 prices received that they are now reported to 

 have abandoned the idea of plowing up their 

 vineyards. Contracts that are being made for 

 wine grapes in California this year are said to 

 run as high as $70 per ton. It is also found 

 that by blending the wine grapes with some 

 of the dark red and purple varieties that a 

 juice is obtained that makes a high grade 

 commercial grape juice drink and grape syrup. 



Pacific Coast headquarters for the United 

 States Bureau of Entomology were opened in 

 Sacramento this week. The bureau concen- 

 trates its attention on the study of insect 

 pests that infect growing crops. Work in 

 California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Ari- 

 zona and New Mexico will be directed from 

 the Sacramento headquarters. 



Peach growers in the Sacramento Valley are 

 expecting $100 a ton for this year's crop. The 

 highest price paid last year was $85. 



Bits About Fruit, Fruitmen 

 and Fruit Growing 



The market for Northwestern box apples 

 picked up during the past month and showed 

 a much stronger tone, but tlie car shortage 

 handicapped shippers and prevented as large 

 a distribution of fruit as the market was will- 

 ing to take. Indications at the present time are 

 that the stocks of box apples in the Northwest 

 will be cleaned up at satisfactory figures and 

 that cars will be more plentiful. 



According to a recent statement of Charles 

 ,1. Brand, general manager of the American 

 Fruitgrowers, Inc., which owns large holdings 

 of orchards in various sections of the country, 

 the officers of that corporation are not worry- 



ing about the future success of the apple in- 

 dustry. Mr. Brand says that the company he 

 represents has faith in the future of the apple 

 business or they would not have made such 

 large investments in it. Continuing he re- 

 marked: "There may be years when apples 

 will sell at less than the cost of production, 

 but that is only what may be expected in any 

 business. Such years will teach us to organize 

 our productive and marketing methods upon a 

 more efficient and economical basis and prob- 

 ably they may result in a general organization 

 of all apple growers into some sort of an asso- 

 ciation for the protection and furtherance of 

 mutual interests. This can never be done dur- 

 ing prosperous years; hard times alone will 

 bring producers together upon this kind of a 

 basis." 



The Joseph J. White Company of Lisbon, 

 N. J., which is endeavoring to improve the 

 huckleberry so that it will be grown and 

 cultivated the same as other bush fruits, an- 

 nounces that its campaign last year to secure 

 fine samples of these berries received wide- 

 spread attention. Letters of inquiry in regard 

 to the proposition were received from thirty- 

 eight different states and also from Alaska and 

 Canada. Over one hundred samples of blue- 

 berries were received, nearly all of which were 

 smaller than those produced on plants already 

 tried and discarded. No berries of the re- 

 quired size were sent, but one plant was pur- 

 chased for $25.00. This, from the Province 

 of Quebec, Canada, had berries over five- 

 eighths inches in diameter. It was of a north- 

 ern species not likely to be of value in New 

 .lersey, but was especially wanted for the 

 breeding work of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture. The offer of $50.00 for a blue- 

 berry or huckleberry bush with berries as 

 large as a cent (three-quarters inches across) 

 is continued this summer. Plants with berries 

 of this size are needed to cross with such 

 plants already found in New Jersey. If they 

 can be located in states north or south they 

 will make possible the development of fine 

 blueberries with a greater range of adaptabil- 

 ity to climate. 



WTiile imports of fruits of various kinds 

 are being brought into the United States it is 

 something of an innovation to know that quite 

 a large quantity of dried currants from Greece 

 are finding lliiir, way to the ports of Uncle 



