Page 10 



BETTER FRUIT 



May, ipi^ 



Future Prospects for Markets for Our Apples Abroad 



A VISIT in tlic (lill'frent fruit-srow- 

 ing (lislricls of Ihe Northwest is 

 convincing as to the :il)un(i:int 

 optiniisni, thnt tile high prices of the 

 last season has spread among growers 

 and shippers. The optimism is some- 

 what "siclilied o'er with a pale cast of 

 thought," caused by the threatened 

 radical advance in freight and icing 

 charges upon shipments of fruit from 

 the I'acilic Northwest, but the optimism 

 nevertheless remains, although in some- 

 what of a more dormant slate than 

 would otherwise be the case. 



The eager interest that the market- 

 men of the eastern part of the United 

 States and of Kngland are displaying 

 regarding the future of the box-api)le 

 business is encouraging support to the 

 hope that the optimism of the growers 

 is well founded. 



While on duty in England prior to 

 going to France, I had a short leave in 

 London and spent a little time in Covent 

 Gardens, talking to the leading im- 

 porters of fruits and produce. At that 

 time all interest centered in the war. 

 Many of the fruitmen had sons who 

 were doing their bit upon the battle- 

 fields of France. The embargo upon 

 .shipments of fruits from America had 

 been long in effect and was a measure 

 that foreign and home fruitmen were in 

 sympathy with. 



The situation was (piite different a 

 few months later, when the armistice 

 was signed, the embargo lifted and a 

 limited supply of boxed and barreled 

 apples was arriving in England. 



There was a mad scramble for the 

 limited offering and the demand for 

 high-class American fruit seemed al- 

 most without limit. A few New York 

 firms that rushed overseas with ship- 

 ments of Extra Fancy box apples, pay- 

 ing as high as !{!2.00 a box freight, did 

 not realize the profits contemplated. 

 The maximum price of about a pound a 

 box reduced the profits that could be 

 realized upon Extra Fancy and Fancy 

 grades of high class box apples from 

 the Northwest. C Grade Newtown Pip- 

 pin apples from Watsonville, Califor- 

 nia, brought the maximum price and 

 sold for the same figures, no more and 

 no less than that received for the best 

 grades and varieties of Northwestern 

 box apples, a condition never before 

 known. 



The shipping of apples to England for 

 the first few months after the armistice 

 ■was signed was curtailed by lack of 

 refrigerated space upon the big liners 

 going to England. The White Star and 

 Cunard lines endeavored to be fair by 

 allotting space according to the amount 

 used in years before the embargo. 

 Accordingly such firms as Simons, 

 Shuttleworth & French Company ob- 

 tained a lion's share of the space, this 

 particular firm having on most of the 

 liners one-fourth of the refrigerated 

 space reserved for apples. Denmark, 

 Holland, Norway and Sweden, with the 

 signing of the armistice, came forward 

 with an urgent demand for apples and 

 Copenhagen did much cabling to the 



By Arthur M. Geary, Portland, Oregon 



well-known English distributing im- 

 porters and to the exporteis in New 

 York. 



The aijples sent to France during the 

 first year that the United States was in 

 the war, were greatly appreciated by 

 the soldiers, and I often heard in 

 France the hope expressed that more 

 apples would be forthcoming. No such 

 shipments had materialized, however, 

 at the time I left France in the latter 

 part of December and American apples 

 were unavailable at any price. 



A word might be said in passing, that 

 the English and French apples were 



LIEUTENANT ARTHUR M. GEARY 



[Editor's Note. — Mr. Geary, who was for- 

 merly identified with the apple industry both 

 in the Northwest and in the big markets of the 

 East, resides in Portland, Oregon. He was 

 graduated from the second reserve ofTicers' 

 training camp at San Francisco, California, re- 

 ceiving the rank of second lieutenant, and was 

 assigned to the aviation section and became 

 assistant executive ofTicer at Kelly Eiekl. San 

 Antonio, Texas. In July, 1918, he went over- 

 seas, where he was made executive oflicer in 

 the American Air Service at the concentration 

 camp at Winchester, England. Later he be- 

 came instructor at the aviation school at 

 St. Maixent, France, and also at the American 

 Air Service headquarters at Tours. In Decem- 

 ber he was promoted to first lieutenant and 

 ordered home. It was while he was in the 

 service abroad that Mr. Geary made the obser- 

 vations on the apple situation in Europe con- 

 tained in this article.] 



found by the soldiers to be fully as 

 miserable and scrawny as reputation 

 led us to expect. The English crop of 

 apples, such as it was, was very light 

 last season. I paid sixpence, or about 

 ten cents, for a scabby apple that would 

 not even have been used for cider in 

 this country. Prices for apples in 

 France were nearly as high and were 

 of an equally low grade. 



In a number of the larger towns and 

 cities of France, I interviewed the fruit 

 and i)roduce merchants, asking where 

 they procured such imported fruits as 

 oranges, lemons and grapes. The an- 

 swer invariably was, through a mail- 

 order system conducted with merchants 

 in Italy and Spain. Later the consul at 

 Brest coniirmed the information that I 

 had received and stated that there was 

 no distribution system for fruits in 

 Fiance. Mr. Wayne M. French, the 

 American representative of Simons, 

 Shuttleworth & French, upon my ar- 

 riving in New York, told me that his 

 firm had shipped apples to Paris in 

 years past, but that the fruit received 

 no adequate distribution and that the 

 charges had proven conservative. 



The American Express Company has 

 established branch ollices in those parts 

 of France where American troops are, 

 or have been, and it appears to me that 

 such an organization could do much 

 towards distributing fruits from some 

 center in France. France is an agricul- 

 tural and horticultural country and be- 

 lieves in patronizing home industry; 

 but there is undoubtedly a latent de- 

 mand among the wealthier classes for 

 the fancy apples that can be grown in 

 the Pacific Northwest. Then, too, 

 France is to be the mecca of hundreds 

 of thousands of tourists and still is at 

 this time the sojourning place for hun- 

 dreds of thousands of English and 

 American troops. These all are fond of 

 high-class apples, such as cannot be 

 grown in Europe and which are only 

 being grown to perfection in the cele- 

 brated districts of the Pacific North- 

 west. 



When the allied armies swept back 

 the Germans in the fighting that pre- 

 ceded the armistice, almost immediately 

 a pilgrimage of French women and old 

 men began through the battlefields, the 

 purpose being to find the graves of .sons, 

 husbands and brothers that had fallen. 

 The immensity of this pilgrimage 

 which has begun and which will be 

 participated in by people from all the 

 allied countries, cannot be overlooked 

 in the seeking of additional markets for 

 Northwestern box apples. 



During the coming year the world 

 will be in a transitory state and no one 

 can predict with any degree of certainty 

 as to what will be the effect of condi- 

 tions upon the box-apple market. But 

 taking a longer look into the future, 

 there appears to be full ground for the 

 abundant optimism of the fruit growers 

 and .shippers of the Northwest. 



The markets of this country have 

 been developed during the period of the 



Continued on page 24. 



