Page 14 



BETTER FRUIT 



November 



BETTER FRUIT 



HOOD RIVER, OREGON 



official Organ of The Northwest Fruit Growers' Association 

 A Monthly Illustrated Magazine Published in the 

 Interest of Modern Fruit Growing and Marketing 



All Communications Should Be Addressed and Remittances 

 Made Payable to 



Better Fruit Puhlishino- Company 



E. H. SHEPARD. Editor and Publisher 



H. E. VAN DE.MAN. (^'ontrlbnlinB Editor 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 



OREGON 



('. I. Lewis, Horticulturist t^'on'allis 



H. S. Jackson. Pathologist CorraUig 



H. F. Wilson, Entomologist Corvallis 



WASHINGTON 



A. L. Melander, Entomologist Pullman 



O. M. Morris, Horticulturist Pullman 



COLORADO 



C. P. Gillette, Director and Entimiologi.st Fort Collins 



E. B. House, Chief of Department of Civil and Irrigation 



Engineering, State Agricultural College Fort Collins 



E. P. Tajlor, Horticulturist Grand Junction 



IDAHO 



W, H. Wicks, Horticulturist Moscow 



W. S, Thornber, Horticulturist Lewiston 



UTAH 



Dr. E. D. Ball, Director and Entomologist Logan 



Leon D, Batchelor. Horticulturist Logan 



MONTANA 



O. B. Whipple, Horticulturist Bozeman 



CALIFORNIA 



C. W. Woodworth, Entomologist Berkeley 



W. H. Volck, EntijuKiloinft . , WatsonviUe 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 

 R. M, Winslow, Provincial Horticulturist Victoria 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: 



Tn the United States, $1.00 per year in advance 



Canada and foreign, including postage, $1,50 



ADVERTISING R,\TES ON APPLICATION 



Entered as second-cl.iss matter December 27, 1906, at tlie 



Postotflce at Hood River, Oregon, under Act 



of Congress of March 3, 1S79. 



APPLE PRICES— PRESENT AND 

 FUTURE 



Without question the amount of 

 apples harvested, ))acked and sliipiicd 

 this year will be far below the esti- 

 mates that have been quoted in nearly 

 I'll publications over the United States. 

 The markets so far have been crowded 

 under unfavorable conditions and with 

 fruit frequently arriving in off condi- 

 tion and overripe. 



On account of the heavy shipments 

 being made in October and November, 

 there is every reason to assume that 

 the (luantity of ajiples to be sold will 

 be heavily reduced by the first of De- 

 cember or the first of January at the 

 latest. Then it will also be ascertained 

 that the crop will be far lighter than 

 original estimates. It may also be as- 

 sumed that business conditions will 

 inqirove and by that time people should 

 begin to recover from the war scare 

 and go about their business in a normal 

 sort of way, for there is no reason why 

 business should not be good in the 

 United States in a general way and 

 continue so. 



It is usually true that when the crop 

 is large prices in the beginning of the 

 -season are low and advance later in the 

 season. With a light crop the reverse 

 is usually true because so many grow- 

 ers hold in order to get a higher price 

 later in the season, which crowds the 

 end of the marketing season. There- 

 fore, taking everything into considera- 

 tion, it seems reasonable to suppose at 

 the present writing that there is a fair 

 chance for the apple market after the 

 first crowd is over, to show an im- 

 proved condition with a reasonable 

 advance in prices. 



APPLE PRICES OF 1914 

 Every year in the apple business is 

 (lifTerent, — an old saying but a true 

 one. Conditions iirevailing this year 

 have never before been duplicated and 

 many conditions have existed or have 

 been created, each one sullicient in 

 itself to materially atl'ect prices. Taken 

 altogther, they have created a very de- 

 pressing elTect on marketing prices. 

 We are referring to these editorially in 

 several paragraphs. 



Effect of Apple Estimates on Prices. 

 Again we feel compelled to speak 

 very plainly and severely regarding 

 apple estimates. Estimates are invari- 

 ably put out in the blossoming time, 

 when the trees are in full bloom and 

 the crop looks very large in the eyes 

 of the estimators. There is an occa- 

 sional year when the crop overruns 

 the blossom estimate, but it is seldom. 

 There are too many things to happen 

 after the blosoming time to reduce the 

 crop and very few to happen to in- 

 crease it. 



This year the Northwest was esti- 

 mated during the blossoming time at 

 from 23,000 to 25,000 carloads. It is 

 probably safe to say now that the 

 Northwest apple crop will probably 

 not exceed 12,000 carloads. A great 

 many ordinary varieties and low grades 

 are not being packed. In all proba- 

 bility not over 8,000 carloads (there 

 may be considerably less) of the 

 Northwestern crop will be shipped 

 east. This is from one-half to one- 

 third of the original estimate of the 

 Northwestern crop. 



The government has estimated that 

 the crop of the United States will be 

 71,000,000 barrels. There is quite a 

 general opinion prevailing, although it 

 may not be universal, that the cro]) of 

 the United States will be somewhere 

 from 40,000,000 to 50,000,000 barrels. 

 In addition to this, a great deal of 

 guessing is being done as to how much 

 of this will be packed up commercially 

 and placed on the market. Varifius 

 guesses run from 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 

 barrels, but the end of the season will 

 tell the story, and if the latter figures 

 are anywhere near correct it is ap- 

 parent that there has not been suffi- 

 cient occasion to justify the depression 

 in prices on account of the (pianitty. 



The Eft'ect of Early Marketing on 

 Prices. — The impression seemed to be 

 created that apples are going to be very 

 low in the winter and late in the sea- 

 son, and growers were informed that 

 the best opportunity to secure good 

 prices would be very early in the sea- 

 son. Many growers picked their a|)ples 

 early and shipped them just as quickly 

 as possible, thinking this would be the 

 only opportunity to secure good prices. 

 I know this to be true, because per- 

 sonally several of my friends have in- 

 formed me that the>' hail been given 

 this "tip" and I personally know that 

 they picked their apples early, picking 

 the Newtowns when they were abso- 

 lutely green, — long before the proper 

 maturity period for picking. Advices 

 from Watsonville, California, show 

 that the Watsonville shippers were 



packing up their Newtowns just as fast 

 as possible and shipping them. A large 

 quantity of these were exported and 

 reports from England are to the effect 

 that, while the prices were fair, the im- 

 mense shipments being consigned had 

 lowered prices very materially. 



While extensive early shipments have 

 been made of Newtowns and while 

 everyone knows that the Newtown is 

 a very late-maturing apple and is not 

 ordinarily ready for consunqition until 

 about the first of .lanuary, it is the last 

 apple which should have been .shipped, 

 this early shipment was far more ex- 

 tensive on other varieties, and the 

 lesult was that the early markets were 

 crowiled bexond reasonable consuming 

 capacity on apples. They .should have 

 been held and shipped along in a regu- 

 lar and even way to supply the con- 

 suming trade. 



The Eliect of Shijinients Without 

 lee. — The depression in reference to 

 prices this year was so extensive that 

 many growers and shippers have had 

 no other idea in their head except to 

 |)ut the apples on the market at a mini- 

 mum cost. Consecpiently inan\- ship- 

 pers foi-warded apples of the late fall 

 varieties without ice in order to save 

 the ten cents per box icing charge. 

 This has been done extensively. The 

 efTect on the market has been disas- 

 trous. As a specific illustration, a 

 carload of .lonathans shipped to Ros- 

 ton, which arrived in fairly good con- 

 dition as far as outward appearances 

 went, sold at S1.50 per box. But after 

 being delivered to the retail dealers 

 and opened up they were found to be 

 so ripe that practically every retailer 

 who had bought at $1.50 returned them 

 to the wholesaler. On account of their 

 being overripe and soft, ths wholesaler 

 had to sell them out to peddlers, or in 

 any other way he could get rid of them 

 quickly, and sold the lot at ^LOO per 

 box. In other words, apples that sold 

 at $1.50 per box, on account of being 

 overripe, due to the lack of icing, 

 where the shipper endeavored to save 

 ten cents per box, sold for $1.00, cut- 

 ling the price 33% per cent. The 

 grower threw away 40 cents per box. 

 The Effect of Grading on Prices. 

 Apple growers as a class of people have 

 the same human natures as generally 

 exist in mankind. There are many who 

 are good, there are some who are in- 

 difTerent and their there are some 

 otherwise. It is to be regretted that 

 there always has been, is and always 

 will be, a number of apple growers, 

 when not properly controlled with a 

 very thorough inspection, disposed to 

 act as follows: When the crop is light 

 and prices are good, they crowd the 

 grade because apples bring good money 

 and they want to get all they can. 

 When the crop is heavy and prices low, 

 they crowd the grade on the ground 

 that "anything is good enough" for the 

 price they are getting. Such work can 

 only be eliminated by a very thorough 

 and rigid inspection. 



The Efi'ect of Business Conditions on 

 Prices. — Everyone who knows anything 

 about financial affairs and business 



