Page 10 



BETTER FRUIT 



July 



Banana Supply of the United States 

 The consular returns for 1912 show 

 that this tremendous supply of fruit 

 comes from the following countries: 

 Jamaica, 15,467,918: Honduras, 7,151,- 

 178; Costa Rica, 7,053,664; Panama, 

 4,581,500; Cuba, 2,478,581; Nicaragua, 

 2,270,100; Guatemala, 2,017,650; Colom- 

 bia, 1,542,988; Mexico, 817,006; British 

 Honduras, 557,160; Dominican Repub- 

 lic, 304,000; Dutch Guiana, 261,548; 

 others, 17,246; a grand total of 44,520,- 

 539 bunches. The same records show 

 that the world supply in 1911 equals 

 about 52,915,063 bunches. Excepting 

 the Canary Islands all of the banana- 

 producing countries border on the 

 Caribbean Sea. From these figures it 

 may be seen that the United States con- 

 sumes about 85 per cent of the entire 

 banana crop of the world. Much of the 

 remaining 15 per cent passes through 

 the ports of this country, making the 

 banana trade both an export and an 

 import business. In recent years a 

 European taste for this fruit has been 

 developed and direct importations have 

 been made: although the amount sent 

 into the United States will tend to in- 

 crease rather than decrease, the in- 

 creased demands of the rest of the 

 world will be made up by an increase 

 of production, for the area capable of 

 producing bananas has scarcely been 

 touched. Although the first full ship- 

 load reached the American market in 

 1830, it was not until 1900 that the 

 English demand warranted a full cargo. 

 And as late as 1912 the first cargo of 

 bananas reached continental Europe; 

 this was landed in Germany in poor 

 condition, but late in that year a really 

 marketable full cargo was shipped 

 direct to that country. One immense 

 Yankee company controls nearly the 

 entire banana trade of the world. 



TABLE III— IMPORTS OF FRUITS INTO THE 

 UNITED STATES 



1900 1910 1912 



Raisins $.')31,124 .?29f.,047 .529.5,466 



Currants 916,908 1,190,020 1,561,350 



Plums, prunes. 47,700 



Dates 410,349 516,714 536,983 



Note — Blanks not of sufllcienl quantity to be 

 listed. 



1900 1910 1912 



Oranges $1,087,041 .?82,457 $108,880 



Lemons 3,666,881 3.136,933 3,368,863 



Bananas 5,877,835 11.642,693 14,.368,330 



Pineapples 1,317,462 1,110,341 



1900 1910 1912 



Olives .?1, 659.801 $2,303,277 



Figs 775,319 934,763 



Grapes 1,682,994 2,331,504 



Total 1900 Total 1910 Total 1912 

 Fresh and 



dried fruits .?16,284,7.-)8 $23,220,792 $28,613,273 



Fruit juices. 63,302 45,508 



Nuts 2,978,834 13,246,742 15,828,003 



Total 1900 Total 1910 Total 1912 

 Preserved 



fruits 81,243,479 956,368 936,107 



Agricultural 



imports . . 420,139,288 687,509,115 783,457,471 



Percent of Fresh, Dried and Preserved Fruits 

 in Total Agricultural Imports 



1900 4.2% 



1910 3.6% 



1912 4.0% 



Apples Our First Fruit Export 

 "The export trade in fruil seems to 

 have begun with the apple, as a large 

 supply existed in close proximity to 

 the seaport towns. Trade in this fruit 

 ■with the West Indies probably de- 

 veloped early in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, though we have no record of 

 shipments until 1741, when it is slated 



that apples were exported from New 

 England to the West Indies in consid- 

 erable abundance. No trans-Atlantic 

 shipment has been disclosed earlier 

 than that of a package of Newtown 

 Pippins of the crop of 1758 sent to 

 Benjamin Franklin while in London." 

 The sight and taste of these apples 

 later resulted in quite a trade, for a 

 letter written in 1773 by the younger 

 Collinson to .lohn Bartram states that 

 the apple crop of England had failed 

 and that the market was being supplied 

 with American apples. He says: "They 

 are, notwithstanding, too expensive for 

 common eating, being sold for two- 

 pence, threepence, and even fourpence 

 an apple." Thus it came about that 

 apples made up the first shipments of 

 our export fruit trade, and for many 

 years this v^'as the only fruit shipped 

 away. Even now "King Apple" con- 

 trols the major part of our export 

 trade. "Shipments of ice from New 

 England ports to the West Indies, 

 which began in 1805, were accompanied 

 by large quantities of apples, and soon 

 after the extension of the ice trade to 

 India and China, which occurred in 

 1830, American apples could be had in 

 the ice ports of those countries." But 

 statistics do not exist prior to 1821, 

 when the Treasury reported an export 

 of 68,443 bushels of apples valued at 

 .¥39,966. 



Apple Exports to Europe 

 In the "Transactions of the American 

 Institute" (1843, page 125), it is said 

 that the Boston fruit dealers had 

 shipped apples and cranberries to 

 P'urope for many years. "In 1845 New- 

 town Pijjpins from the orchard of 

 Robert L. Pell of Ulster County, New 

 York, which contained 20,000 trees, 

 sold in London at $21.00 a barrel." At 

 a later date shipments of the same 

 variety and others from the Piedmont 

 and Mountain districts of Virginia 

 were sent out. Since then the ship- 

 ments of apples have figured heavily 

 in our export trade and they promise 

 to increase in the near future — espe- 

 cially now since the apple-package 

 standardization has been passed. The 

 Eastern States still furnish a large part 

 of the apples exported, but shipments 

 from the great orchard districts of the 

 Mississippi Valley and the Pacific 

 Coast now are a very large factor. 

 New York has always held the lead in 

 the exportation of apples from the 

 American continent to Europe. A 

 glance at Table IV will .show that the 

 I)orts in the order of their importance 

 as shippers of barreled apples in 

 1912-13 were approximately: New 

 York, 32 per cent of the total; Boston, 

 16 per cent; Montreal, 12 per cent; 

 Portland, Maine, 10 per cent; Halifax 

 and St. Johns, 30 per cent. Other ports 

 that at one time or another have en- 

 tered the race are: Philadelphia, Bal- 

 timore, Newport News, Norfolk, An- 

 napolis and Wolfville. With the ex- 

 ception of the last two mentioned, 

 none of the ports have had enou.gh to 

 list since 1897-98, and Wolfville has en- 

 tered the race only once, in 1904-5. 

 Boxed apples have only been listed 

 separately since 1898-99, and since that 



time several ports have exported them. 

 In 1912-13 the percentages of the trans- 

 Atlantic exportation of boxed apples 

 were about: New York, 93 per cent; 

 Boston, 6 per cent; Portland, Maine, 1 

 per cent. 



English Imports of Apples 

 Liverpool, London and Glasgow have 

 always taken most of our exports of 

 apples, but since 1896-97 Hamburg and 

 other continental ports have figured 

 heavily. England imports large quan- 

 tities of apples from the United States 

 and Canada, as well as some from 

 other countries. Their relative im- 

 portance is shown by the following 

 approximate percentages: 



ENGLISH IMPORTS OF APPLES 



1911 1912 



United States 44% 43% 



Australia 9 10.5 



Belgium 0.8 1.3 



Canada 41 42.7 



France 1.6 0.4 



Portugal 2.6 2 



All others 1 0.6 



too 100 



Total in hundredweight 3,332,618 3,881,946 



"Distribution by the importing fruit 

 brokers is either by private sale or by 

 auction. WTien large quantities are to 

 be dealt with, the latter method is the 

 most general, but where the supply is 

 short private sales are frequently bet- 

 ter. Brokers prefer to be in a position 

 to adopt either method, according to 

 their judgment of market conditions at 

 the time." In 1912-13 the American im- 

 ports came in at the ports as follows: 

 Iviverpool, about 35 per cent of our 

 total export of barreled apples and 

 about 22 per cent of our export of 

 boxed apples; London, 19 per cent of 

 the barreled and 38 per cent of the 

 boxed apples; Glasgow, 18 per cent of 

 the barreled and 7 per cent of the 

 boxed apples. Of the boxed apples 

 taken into Great Britain, Washington 

 supplies about 60 per cent and Oregon 

 and California each about 20 per cent. 



European Imports of Apples 



The importation of fresh apples is 

 enormous in Germany, coming princi- 

 pally from the United States and 

 Australia and consisting largely of 

 boxed apples. The Australian ship- 

 ments are entirely of boxed apples, but 

 they do not compete with the North 

 .\merican fruit, for the season of the 

 Australian apples is from April to the 

 end of July, whereas that of the fruit 

 from the United Slates has a season 

 from October to April. An idea of the 

 extent of the importation mav be had 

 from the fact that in 1912-13 300,000 

 boxes and 2.30,000 barrels of North 

 American apples were handled at Ham- 

 burg, the latter originating in the East- 

 ern States and Canada, while the for- 

 mer came principally from Washing- 

 ton and Oregon. Hamburg is the dis- 

 tribution center for all Germany. Of 

 llie 1912-13 crop Hamburg took about 

 8 per cent of the barreled and about 

 12 per cent of the boxed apples. Aus- 

 tria, France, Italy, Russia, Spain and 

 Switzerland rarely import any Ameri- 

 can ajiples excei)t in an ofi" year for 

 their own crops. Belgium's importa- 

 tions of apples come by way of Lon- 

 don and Southampton from California, 



