igif 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page II 



Oregon, 'Washington, Canada and South 

 Africa; the total of all for the vear 

 1912 was valued at .$71,420. The 

 Netherlands imports quite a quantity 

 of apples, principally from the United 

 States, Australia and Nova Scotia, 

 through the port of Rotterdam. Owing 

 to lack of data it is impossible to give 

 the exact amounts of this importation. 

 So likewise it is impossible to separate 

 the amount of apples imported by Nor- 

 way, which in 1912 amounted to 325,- 

 557 pounds from the United States and 

 Australia. 



Apple Exportations to South America 



Our apple trade with our sister con- 

 tinent has been very under-developed. 

 Now, however, owing to the increasing 

 prosperity of South America, exporta- 

 tions of American apples are finding 

 their way into that market. At present 

 the industry is only in its infancy, but 

 it is hoped that the solidity and flavor 

 of the American apple will enable it to 

 travel long distances and hold its own 

 against all comers. Argentina, Brazil 

 and I'ruguay all have small importa- 

 tions of our apples, but due to the fact 

 that refrigeration facilities are very in- 

 adequate on the few transportation 

 lines between our ports and those of 

 South America these have been very 

 limited in quantity and costly when 

 landed in those trans-equator ports. 

 American apples are unknown in Chile 

 as well as many other parts of the 

 West Coast, but with the advent of the 

 Panama Canal this will probably be 

 remedied. Venezuela imports some of 

 our apples from the Northwest, but it is 

 only at great cost incurred by trans- 

 shipping over the Isthmus; these come 

 principally from Washington and Ore- 

 gon. Mexico started some importation 

 of our apples a few years ago when 

 refrigerator cars could be sent to 

 Mexico City, but due to the unsettled 

 condition of the country and the impos- 

 sibility of maintaining rapid trans- 

 portation, this has ceased. However, 

 some think that even in the present 

 state of affairs a profitable trade could 

 be built up with the seacoast towns. 

 All of this trade is growing rapidly, as 

 may be noted from one day's ship- 

 ments: On October 18, 1913, to Rio de 

 Janeiro, Brazil, went 200 boxes; to 

 Bahia, Brazil, 128 boxes of apples; to 

 Buenos Ayres, Argentina, went 3,274 

 boxes and 464 barrels of apples. 



Apple Exportations to Other Continents 



We in the Northwest are accustomed 

 to think of Asia as a "big" market for 

 our apples, but as a matter of fact only 

 a very small amount of first-class stock 

 is wanted in Asia. Hongkong, for in- 

 stance, imported only 11,000 boxes 

 from all countries in 1912-13; of this 

 2,000 boxes came from the Hood River 

 district by way of Seattle, and fi,000 

 were second and third-class apples 

 from San Francisco. Hongkong is the 

 principal distribution center for im- 

 ported fruits for continental Asia. 

 India and Japan rarely see an Ameri- 

 can apple, according to the consular 

 reports. South Africa imported some 

 700 or 800 boxes and barrels of apples 



in 1912-13 from California by way of 

 London. This is largely a speculative 

 proposition and will probably never be 

 a basis for a permanent trade. Aus- 

 tralia, though a large exporter herself 

 during our summer, nevertheless im- 

 ported some 61,000 cases of apples 

 from the United States in 1912-13; of 

 this amount 49,400 cases were from 

 Washington and 11,600 cases were 

 from California. 



Other Fruit Exportations 



In addition to apples, which com- 

 prise by far the greatest amount of our 

 fruit exportations, there are various 

 other fruits sent out, such as cranber- 

 ries, peaches, plums, prunes, pears, 

 grapefruit, oranges, etc. The supply of 

 all but the first comes mainly from 

 California. Our exportations to Eng- 

 land have always been heavy, such as: 



i9t1, lbs. 1912. lbs. 



Apricots and peaches... 415,000 2,3.30,000 



Pears 132,940,000 91,445,000 



Plums and prunes 2,478,000 6,330,000 



Canada imports many of our tender 

 fruits. Several other countries import 

 certain of our fruits, but as a rule this 

 is a very limited trade, and in the case 

 of the Mediterranean countries the 

 trade is absent altogether. Our trade 

 with South .America in fruits other 

 than apples is rapidly growing. For 

 instance, the exports to the south for 

 one day (October 18, 1913) were: To 

 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1,270 boxes of 

 pears and 120 boxes and 4,224 packages 

 of other fruit; to Buenos Ayres, Argen- 

 tina, 970 boxes of pears and 800 pack- 

 ages of other fruit. 



Export of Dried Fruits 



Since about 1895 increasing export 

 shipments of dried apricots, peaches 

 an<l prunes have been made from Cali- 

 fornia, and this branch of the trade 

 promises soon to reach large propor- 

 tions. Dried apples have been exported 

 for many years — in fact before accu- 

 rate records of exports were kept. Ex- 

 ports of dried fruits have increased 

 rapidly since the perfection of the fruit 

 dryer, which occurred about 1870-75. 

 Not all European countries draw upon 

 this country for their dried fruits, and 

 some buy only in off years for their 

 own fruits. "It is estimated by dealers 

 that there are imported annually into 

 Austria twenty carloads of dried apri- 

 cots, twenty carloads of dried apples, 

 pears and cherries, thirty carloads of 

 dried prunes, or about seventy car- 

 loads — 1,.500,000 pound.s — from Amer- 

 ica." Much of this fruit is brought in 

 i)y way of England and Germany, so 

 these figures seem inaccurate. Bel- 

 gium imported from America in 1912 

 dried apples to the extent of .«121,985; 

 dried apricots, .$52,065; dried prunes, 

 .$136,115. France imports much, but 

 this is entirely dependent upon her 

 own crops. Germany imports much 

 along this line from the I'nited States, 

 but Italy, Norway and the Netherlands 

 import very little of dried fruit from 

 us. Russia imports a very little and 

 om- dried fruit is never seen in Switz- 

 erland. England imports very little 

 from us other than prunes and plums, 



of which she imported in 1912 114,- 

 063,000 pouufls of plums, and 28,902,000 

 pounds of prunes. Asia, South Africa 

 and Australia report practically no im- 

 portation of dried fruits from the 

 United States. It would seem as though 

 India, China and Japan especially 

 \yould prove fertile fields for exploita- 

 tion. Canada imports a very little and 

 Mexico practically none at present, 

 owing to the unsettled condition of the 

 country. Our trade in these goods 

 with South America is not a general 

 trade and is confined to a few cities 

 only; this trade has a bright future 

 before it. For instance, Chile and the 

 other countries on the West Coast, as 

 well as Venezuela and other northern 

 countries, do not know our dried fruits. 

 Uruguay and Argentina import to a 

 limited extent. The growth in this 

 trade may be measured by the figures 

 for Brazil. In 1911 this country im- 

 ported .$14,097 worth of dried fruit.s, 

 and in 1912 it imported them to a value 

 of $19,544 from the United States— an 

 increase of over 35 per cent. 



Intra-United States Fruit Trade 

 As has been noted, the foreign fruits 

 controlled the American market up to 

 the time of the Civil War, and except 

 for a poorly developed apple trade and 

 an unreliable trade in small fruits 

 from New York, New Jersey, Long 

 Island and Delaware there was no do- 

 mestic competition. Once in a while a 

 sloop loaded with watermelons from 

 the South reached New York, but there 

 was no systematized trade as there is 

 today. Sometimes the peach crop of 

 Delaware failed and California was 

 not ready, as she is today, to come to 

 the rescue. According to Mr. W. D. 

 Barns of Middlehope, New York, "The 

 planting of commercial apple orchards 

 did not receive much attention in New 

 York till 1820 to 182.5, although Robert 

 Pell of Esopus had about twenty acres 

 of bearing Newtown Pippin trees from 

 which he exported fruit as earlv as 

 1825 to 1830. Along the Hudson, where 

 the fruit could be easily transported to 

 New York City by boat, the trade in- 

 cluded a large number of summer and 

 fall apples as well as the winter varie- 

 ties. They were shipped in straw-head 

 barrels. Some were contracted for by 

 the dealers in New York and some 

 were sold by the captain of the steam- 

 boat that carried them to the city." As 

 transportation facilities gradually im- 

 proved by the opening of canals and 

 railways the farmers in many interior 

 localities found that they could send 

 their fruit to other than local markets 

 and receive profitable returns. Ac- 

 cordingly commercial orcharding be- 

 gan to attract attention, especially in 

 regions which were found to be nat- 

 urally favorable to the i)roduction of 

 good apples. From 1850 to 1860 the 

 number of commercial orchards which 

 were planted increased rai)idly, [lar- 

 ticularly in Western New York. The 

 most potent single factor in this growth 

 was the opening of the Erie Canal in 

 1825. This afforded cheap transporta- 

 tion from the greatest fruit region in 

 the world. 



