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BETTER FRUIT 



November, 19^1 



BETTER FRUIT 



Published Monthly 

 by 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



Twelfth and Jefferson Streets 

 PORTLAND, OREGON 



W. H. WALTON Editor 



JERROLD OWEN Associate Editor 



C. I. MOODY Advertising Manager 



EASTERN REPRESENTATIVES 



PAUL W. & GUY F. MINNICK 



303 Fifth Ave,, New York 



JNO. D. ROSS 608 Otis Bldg., Chicago 



SAN FRANCISCO REPRESENTATIVE 



EDWIN C. WILLIAMS 



Hobart Bldg., San Francisco 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON— C. I. Lewis, Horticulturist. 



WASHINGTON— Dr. A. L. Melander, Ento- 

 mologist; O. M. Morris, Horticulturist, Pull- 

 man. 



COLORADO— C. P. Gillette. Director and Ento- 

 mologist; E. B. House, Irrigation Expert, State 

 Agricultural College, Fort Collins. 



ARIZONA— F. J. Crider, Horticulturist, Tuscon. 



MONTANA— H. Thornber. Victor. 



CALIFORNIA— C. W. Woodworth, Entomolo- 

 gist, Berkeley; W. H. Volck, Entomologist, 

 Watsonville; Leon D. Batchelor, Horticulturist, 

 Riverside. 



INDIANA— H. S. Jackson, Pathologist, Lafayette. 



All Communications should be addressed and 



Remittances made payable to 



BETTER FRUIT PUBLISHING COMPANY 



Subscription Price: 



In the United States, $1.00 per year in advance. 



Canada and Foreign, including postage, $2.00, 



payable in American exchange. 



Advertising Rates on Application. 



Profiteering Traced 



Early in October a party of Chi- 

 cago aldermen visited cities of the 

 Pacific Coast, on trail of the elusive 

 profiteer. 



No, the Windy City investigat- 

 ors came not here expecting to 

 shake an accusing finger at any 

 suspected group of Western citi- 

 zens. Their suspicions pointed in 

 an entirely different direction. 

 They came fully expecting their 

 investigation to fix the guilt of 

 profiteering in market produce 

 upon other parties. It did. 



The 28 visitors were members 

 of Chicago's committee on high 

 costs and high rentals. For months 

 they have been waging an active 

 campaign for reduction in food 

 costs and rentals. In their fight 

 for lower food costs they of neces- 

 sity had made a study of marketing 

 practices. They had analyzed 

 costs at the consumer end of the 

 line. They came to Washington, 

 Oregon and California to round 

 out their study by getting the pro- 

 ducer angle, more particularly in 

 the fruit industry. 



What these men learned from 

 their investigation out here served 

 only to confirm facts and convic- 

 tions they already held. Promptly 



and frankly they declared that the 

 fruit growers are not profiteering. 

 Russell J. Poole, able and aggress- 

 ive secretary of the commission, 

 publicly stated that the growers 

 are in no way to blame for the high 

 cost of their fruits in Chicago. 



The railroads may be getting a 

 bit more than entitled to for haul- 

 ing the fruit East, Mr. Poole 

 opined, but the real charge of prof- 

 iteering he fastened upon the brok- 

 ers and commission men. It is not 

 an uncommon practice for these 

 middlemen to withhold fruit from 

 sale that prices may be pushed up. 

 Sometimes it is held until it rots. 

 Again, it is no uncommon occur- 

 ence, he said, for a car of Hood 

 River or Wenatchee apples to be 

 sold and resold five and six times 

 during its journey to Chicago. 



By these findings the stigma of 

 profiteering, at least of unduly 

 forcing up costs, seems rather def- 

 initely placed. Some Chicagoans 

 pay the extra cost, others do with- 

 out the fruit. In both instances 

 the guiltless Pacific Coast growers 

 suffer injury. In spirit and in hope 

 for a change in the system, these 

 growers back Chicago in her fight 

 for lower costs through more direct 

 distribution. 



Car Shortage 



Again this season, as has univer- 

 sally been the case when heavy fruit 

 crops have been grown, shippers 

 of the Pacific Coast section have 

 been confronted at the height of 

 the shipping movement by an ap- 

 parent inability on the part of the 

 railroads to supply sufficient cars. 



For months the railroads had 

 been begging for tonnage. Busi- 

 ness was so slack most of them 

 were not making expenses. Such 

 was their plight it had the dear 

 public on the verge of shedding 

 tears of sympathy. 



A few weeks pass and some of 

 these same railroads are declining 

 business on the ground that they 

 are unable to handle it. The old 

 excuses are revived — not enough 

 refrigerator cars, too many re- 

 quired to move the grapes of Cali- 

 fornia, or the cabbages of Michi- 

 gan, or the potatoes of Texas. 



In the past there hasn't been 

 very much the unfortunate ship- 

 pers could do in this situation. 

 There isn't a great deal more they 

 can do now, but one helpful course 

 presents itself. They can throw 

 as much as possible of their ton- 

 nage to the competing water lines. 

 Some steamship companies have 

 become energetic enough to fit 

 many of their boats with refrigera- 

 tor space. More of them will glad- 

 ly do so if the requisite cargo is 

 made available. Fruit shippers 

 will do well to encourage them. 



One thing more will go far tcn 

 ward putting the steamship com- 

 panies in position to take a larger 

 share of the Coast's fruit ship- 

 ments — free tolls for coastwise 

 shipping through the Panama 

 canal. It would be interesting to 

 know how many men of the west- 

 ern fruit industry have written 

 or telegraphed their representatives 

 in Congress asking them to work 

 for the free toll measure. 



Benefits of Displays 



Who in your community won 

 the prizes for best horticultural 

 displays at the fairs of your sec- 

 tion — yourself or your neighbor.? 

 It is a bit late to contemplate the 

 fact that you may have made no 

 showing of your fruits, or may not 

 have done them justice in scope or 

 attractiveness of displays. If such 

 reflections are yours, perk up — 

 there is still opportunity to gain 

 credit for yourself and your com- 

 munity by entering exhibits at the 

 big Northwest Fruit Exposition at 

 Seattle and the Land Products 

 Show at Portland. 



In thinking of such exhibits do 

 not forget the variety of benefits 

 that accrue. If you do creditably 

 there is a direct reflex benefit for 

 your community. There comes a 

 stimulating encouragement for 

 your own advancement in the fruit 

 growing industry. You will have 

 done something to help give favor- 

 able impressions to visitors from 

 other states and sections of our 

 country. Neither least nor last in 

 the category, you will have done 

 something to stimulate the fruit- 

 consuming appetites of the general 



