January, 1922 



Boxed Apple Situation 



{Continued from fage 13) 

 year in effecting a most extraordinary dis- 

 tribution of northwestern apples and have 

 sold and shipped fruit in carload lots to 

 literally hundreds of markets which have 

 never used boxed apples in car lots before, 

 and despite herculean efforts to avoid con- 

 gestion at gateways and large terminal mar- 

 kets, the fact remains that the pressure of 

 supplies on nearly all of the larger mar- 

 kets during the last half of October and 

 throughout the month of November was 

 so great that prices declined in proportion 

 to the degree of the pressure, and prices 

 ruling in recent weeks have been 25c to 

 50c per box lower than opening prices at 

 the beginning of the season. 



The service of refrigerator steamships 

 between Puget Sound and Columbia River 

 points to Europe has been expanded by the 

 addition of several lines and comparatively 

 large quanities of fruit, particularly the 

 varieties and sizes indicated in the foreign 

 markets, have been exported. 



BEFORE the Panama Canal route will 

 afford substantial relief to the trans- 

 portation difficulties of this industry, the 

 following points will have to be worked 

 out: 



1 — Sufficiently low freight rate to 

 permit absorption of rail freight from in- 

 itial producing points to Pacific seaboard, 

 and absorption of short haul rates from 

 Atlantic terminals inland for a reasonable 

 distance. 



2 — Frequent and regular sailings. 

 3 — Convenient terminals at Atlantic 

 ports of discharge. 



4 An arrangement whereby intercoastal 



steamers will stop in at a number of Atlan- 

 tic and Gulf ports so as to effect at least 

 a seaboard distribution of the cargoes. 



It is still too early to show with certainty 

 how the gross returns to the growers for 

 their 1921 apples will compare with the 

 returns a year ago. A few of the earlier 

 varieties have been cleared and from these 

 returns it would appear that the actual 

 dollar returns to the growers this year per 

 box of apples will average higher than last. 

 As the cost of production of this year's 

 crop is probably not over 50 per cent of 

 last year, this means that the growers this 

 year will make a reasonable profit on their 

 apples, whereas last year, with few excep- 

 tions, the returns represented a loss under 

 the actual cost of production. 



The season has been very strikingly 

 characterized by an unprecedentedly rapid 

 liquidation of the crop. The Northwest- 

 ern Fruit Exchange, with which the writer 

 is connected, returned to its shippers dur- 

 ing the month of October, $801,773.11, 

 which compares with $311,348.70 during 

 the same period in 1920. During the first 

 1 5 days of November, the same organiza- 

 tion returned to the same group of ship- 

 pers, sales proceeds amounting to $814,- 



BETTER FRUIT 



158.52, making a total for the 6 weeks 

 between October 1 to November 15, of $1,- 

 615,931.63. 



This rapid flow of money back to the 

 producing districts has resulted in ex- 

 tensive liquidation of bank loans and mer- 

 cantile credits, at least on the part of those 

 growers and growers' organizations that 

 have pursued' the same policy of speeding 

 up the shipments and converting the 

 crop into cash that has been followed by 

 the organization referred to. 



Practically all of the early and interme- 

 diate varieties of apples are far along to 

 complete liquidation. This leaves yet to 

 be sold only Winesaps and a few minor, 

 hard, late-keeping varieties. 



Inasmuch as the supplies of latekeeping, 

 barreled apples produced in the eastern dis- 

 tricts are exceedingly light, the markets of 

 this country will be, to a very large extent, 

 dependent for their late winter and spring 

 supplies upon storage stocks of Winesaps 

 and similar varieties in the Northwest. 

 Thus these varieties occupy an exceedingly 

 strong technical position and there is every 

 reason to believe that these stocks will even- 

 tually be sold at strong prices and returns 

 therefrom be highly profitable to the grow- 

 ers. 



Having already turned such a very large 

 quantity of fruit into cash, which has en- 

 abled them to pay their debts and put them 

 in a comfortable financial position, the 



Page Twenty-jive 



growers can now carry the remaining stock 

 without undue strain. 



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SAN FRANCISCO SULPHUR CO. 



624 California St. 



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-,m iiiMiiimiiu 1 "Mill I Ill" """"""""Ill - 



Apples, Pears, Peaches 

 Potatoes, Onions 



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215-217 Washington St. Portland, Ore. 



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