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BETTER FRUIT 



An Illustrated Mngazinc Devoted to the Interests 



of Modern Fruit Growing and Marketing. 



Published Monthly 



by 



Better Fruit Publishing Compariy 



407 Lumber Exchanse 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



The 1918 Apple Crop of the North- 

 west.— The total estimate for the 1918 

 apple crop has been issued by the 

 Bureau of Markets, Department of Agri- 

 culture. The entire crop of the United 

 States will be about 25,404,500 barrels, 

 which is an increase of about 13 per 

 cent over last year. This increase is 

 due to the heavy production of barrel 

 apples, which shows an increase of 

 31 per cent over last year, but the pro- 

 duction of box apples will show a de- 

 crease of more than 4,000,000 boxes, or 

 17 per cent. 



The State of Washington will ship 

 around 17,180 cars of 756 boxes each. 

 This is practically 5,000 cars less than 

 produced in 1917. Wenatchee will pro- 

 duce about 8,400 cars, which is very 

 little less than last year. The total crop 

 of the Yakima Valley is estimated at 

 7,600 cars, or about 900 less than 1917. 

 The crop of Hood River is one of the 

 largest ever produced, amounting to 

 about one and one-half million boxes, 

 which is nearly half a tiiillion more 

 than last year. In all other fruit dis- 

 tricts of Oregon the apple crop is light, 

 probably not half of last year's pro- 

 duction. Idaho has suffered the most 

 severe loss of any state, which was 

 caused by early frosts. The crop will 

 not amount to 500 cars, as compared to 

 3,500 in 1917. 



Colorado will ship about 1,800 cars, 

 the greater portion of which will be 

 moved in bulk. The Bitter Root Valley 

 of Montana will ship almost the entire 

 crop of Montana, consisting of about 

 300 cars. The crop of Utah is estimated 

 at 600 cars. 



The Value of an Orchard.— The fruit 

 industry is coming back to its own. 

 Growers are learning that the secret of 

 the success of the fruit industry is not 

 just obtaining a very high price, but 

 much of the success depends on the 

 marketing. Fruit growers have made 

 big money and have every confidence 

 that the fruit business can be and will 

 be put on a stabilized basis, and net the 

 grower a good income on his invest- 

 ment. Recently in the Yakima district 

 offers were made of S1,000 per acre on 

 three different orchard tracts, which 

 were refused. This is evidence that the 

 owners feel there is a big future for the 

 fruit industrv. 



Steel Strapping. — Recently tests have 

 been made regarding what additional 

 strength was afforded by the use of 

 steel strapping. In boxes of canned 

 goods if a steel strap is added four 

 inches from each end of the box its 

 capacity to stand rough usage was 

 shown to be more than trebled, while 

 a box 16x16x36 inches, carrying a 350- 

 pound load, could be cut 25 per cent in 

 quantity of material without loss of 



. BETTER FRUIT 



carrying strength by the addition of 

 straps placed six inches from each end. 

 This will give fruit growers some idea 

 of the value of steel strai)i)ing for apple 

 boxes where they may be subjected to 

 rough usage or long ti-ips, and particu- 

 larly in export business, \^^lere boxes 

 of apples arrive in a broken condition 

 and the apples are bruised it means a 

 serious loss. The freight is just as 

 heavy on a broken box of apples, the 

 same amount of room is recjuired, and 

 the ajjples will not demand a liigh price 

 like the apples arriving in first-class 

 condition. 



Mr. Gerald Da Costa, the well known 

 fruit broker of Covent Garden, London, 

 through Better Fruit, sends the fol- 

 lowing message: "Cheeriest Christmas 

 greetings to all of my friends in Amer- 

 ica, and best wishes for a very prosper- 

 ous New Year." Mr. Da Costa is still in 

 active service in France, but hopes to 

 be released in the near future. It is his 

 intention to make an early visit to the 

 United States, and he is looking forward 

 to meeting many of his friends. 



The report on cold storage holdings 

 December 1, for the entire country, 

 show a decrease over last year. The 

 total amount of box apples will show a 

 slight increase, but the Northwestern 

 holdings show a decrease of about 11 

 per cent than for the same date in 1917. 



Better Marketing and 

 Distributing 



Better Fruit, Portland, Oregon. 



Enclosed find $1.00 as renewal of my 

 subscription to Better Fruit. It seems 

 to me that we must now have better 

 marketing and distributing of fruit, as 

 the in-oducers have generally made good 

 in the matter of better fruit. 



We have fought the vermin and the 

 disease, and graded and packed our 

 fruit in scientific and attractive pack- 

 ages. But after we have "delivered the 

 goods" we often find ourselves up 

 against a primitive, unscientific and 

 barbaric method of marketing the stuff 

 and distributing it, whereby the con- 

 sumer pays too much and the producer 

 gets too little for his work. 



Better Fruit ought to start a cam- 

 paign persistent and relentless against 

 all the pests and parasites of market 

 and distribution until these shall be as 

 clean and attractive and satisfactory as 

 our fruit itself. 



There should be more of our first- 

 class pome fruit on the family dining 

 tables, in the restaurants and hotels of 

 the cities. You seldom see good apples 

 on the tables in Portland, but often see 

 there a lavish display of citrus fruit 

 from California. From that state we 

 also here in' Oregon and Washington 

 get carloads of canned and dried fruit, 

 while a large amount of our own is 

 allowed to go to waste. There ought to 

 be a remedy for all these things and 

 Better Fruit and our scientific experts 

 ought to point the way. 



Yours for better fruit, better markets, 

 better distribution, better saving of by- 



, January 



products, better returns to the groweif', 

 belter papers, better woiid and better 

 men everywhere. 



H. V. RoMiNGEn. 

 Underwood, Washington. 



Your letter contains material for 

 many long articles for Better Fruit 

 and we can only touch lightly on a few 

 of the most important topics mentioned. 

 First of all, the giowers themselves 

 have much to do. There is altogether 

 too large a percentage of fruit entering 

 our markets in a poor physical condi- 

 tion, poorly packed, not well graded, 

 and often very imperfect, due to attacks 

 of insects and diseases. One has only 

 to visit our wholesale and retail mar- 

 kets in the East to know that this con- 

 dition is true. Our local markets on the 

 Pacific Coast are vastly superior in this 

 respect to the large Eastern markets, 

 where one will see a large percentage 

 of the apples offered to the market in 

 such poor condition that they would 

 make doubtful hog food. Despite the 

 wonderful progress we on the Pacific 

 Coast have made on grades and grading, 

 we are a long way from having our 

 grades standardized, and it is to be 

 hoped that the Pacific Northwest, at 

 least, in the very near future may be 

 able to unite on standard grades. 



We realize that many factors con- 

 nected with marketing are far from 

 satisfactory and much needs to be done 

 to protect both grower and consumer. 

 Happily, however, we have made much 

 progress in marketing. The establish- 

 ment of the Fruit Growers Agency, Inc., 

 of the Pacific Northwest, while not 

 doing so much perhaps directly in itself, 

 has, however, accomplished a great 

 work indirectly, as it has been a vehicle 

 through which we could come in close 

 contact with the Office of Markets of the 

 United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture. As a result we have fewer organ- 

 izations attempting to sell fruit, we 

 have more stronger local organizations, 

 we have eliminated to a very large ex- 

 tent the cut-throat practices which our 

 various selling organizations formerly 

 engaged in. We have secured a much 

 wider distribution of our fruit, and we 

 have been able to receive daily market 

 reports, climatic reports, etc., all of 

 which have been of great help to the 

 growers of the Pacific Northwest. All 

 growers should belong to some local 

 association. The local association, in 

 turn, if not having a very large tonnage, 

 should confine their efforts to good 

 physical handling and should affiliate 

 with some strong marketing agency. 

 We all realize that there are many evils 

 connected with marketing that should 

 be corrected. Fortunately, we are cor- 

 recting some of these and ultimately we 

 may hope to correct them all. Better 

 Fruit is ever anxious to do everything 

 in its power to improve the market- 

 ing conditions for the growers. One of 

 the greatest sources of trouble, how- 

 ever, and one of the hardest factors to 

 handle is the independent grower, who 

 often recognizes no standard grades, 

 persists in consigning his fruit too often 

 to men of unknown reputation and who 

 later may prove to be rascals. 



