Page 6 



BETTER FRUIT 



February 



Display of the Prosser Commercial Club, winner of third prize of S50 among feature displays 



entered by organizations at the Seventh National Apple Show, 1914. The value of diversified 



farming in connection with the fruit business is emphasized in this exhibit. 



we are compelled to grow cover crops, 

 as the ground requires. On these cover 

 crops we can feed a drove of hogs, a 

 flock of sheep or a herd of dairy 

 cows. The suggestions are not experi- 

 mental, because 1 actually know of a 

 number of growers who are making 

 good money on the diversity lines such 

 as I have already mentioned. At the 

 National Apple Show at Spokane I met 

 one fruitgrower who told me that al- 

 ready this season he had sold $13,000 

 worth of hogs and .$7,000 worth of 

 cattle. 



Fourth — Cost of Marketing 

 I have always believed, and there are 

 many who concur, that our cost of mar- 

 keting has been unnecessarily high. If 

 you are going to do anything success- 

 fully you must do the job thoroughly, 

 and therefore I have begun at the bot- 

 tom and first told you that you must 

 reduce the cost of production, which 

 you can do; that you must reduce the 

 cost of harvesting; that you can and 

 must increase your income by diversity 

 lines; and now I say to you that you 

 must go after the cost of marketing in 

 the same thorough manner and en- 

 deavor to have it done in the most 

 economical way. It is not my inten- 

 tion to criticise any particular market- 

 ing concern, but the system in general. 

 In each one of the ditTerent fruit dis- 

 tricts at the present time we have all 



the way from a half dozen to one dozen 

 marketing concerns. This means that 

 at the present time there exists an un- 

 necessary number of overhead dupli- 

 cating expenses which we fruitgrowers 

 have to pay for. I believe that the in- 

 terest is such and the necessity of the 

 growers so great that, through their in- 

 lluence and with the willing consent of 

 many marketing concerns, a number of 

 them can be harmonized and brought 

 together, thus eliminating the number 

 and reducing the unnecessary expense 

 in marketing for which the grower 

 pays. 



Hut a greater evil exists in connec- 

 tion with too great a number of mar- 

 keting concerns than the extra expense 

 of marketing. By that I mean that an 

 unnecessary number of marketing con- 

 cerns has resulted in an unnecessary 

 cut on the price of apples this year. 

 This self-competition is probably cost- 

 ing the grower more this year than any 

 other one feature in connection with 

 his business. The complaint of price 

 cutting seems to be quite general on the 

 part of marketing concerns, — each ap- 

 parently blaming the others. I have 

 heard of a number of instances where 

 this price cutting has taken bread out 

 of the fruitgrowers' mouth. One man- 

 ager told me that after he had sold a 

 number of cars to an Eastern firm his 

 price was cut by a competitor 1,5 cents 

 on one grade and 10 cents per box on 

 another. Another instance came to my 

 attention: A marketing concern ciuoted 

 a dealer at a certain price, which the 

 Lord knows was pretty low, but the 

 dealer declined the offer, stating that 

 he was quoted 2.5 cents less per box. 

 Here are three instances of the self- 

 competition where it cost the grower 

 10, 15 and 25 cents per box this year. 



Fifth — Home Storage 

 I have been asked to discuss this sub- 

 ject upon several occasions. As I am 

 simply calling attention to the main 

 features where money can be saved 

 and made, I will not go into this in 

 detail, but will simply cover it in a gen- 

 eral way. Nearly all Eastern cold 

 storages do not accept apples on cold 

 storage, no matter how short a time 

 they may remain, at less than a two- 

 months' charge, which is usually 10 or 

 12 cents per box. Season charges vary 

 in different cold storage plants from 17 

 to 25 cents. Consequently the average 

 cold storage and Eastern warehouse 

 will probably charge somewhere from 

 15 to 20 cents per year. The reason for 

 this is that Eastern cold storage plants 

 are usually built in cities alongside 

 railroad tracks, where real estate is 

 very high, and consequently they must 

 charge this sum in order to pay ex- 

 penses and make a fair profit. Cold 

 storage plants in our fruit districts can 

 be erected alongside of railroad tracks 

 on cheap ground, and the actual cost 



Display of Greenacres Boys' Apple Club at the Seventh National Apple Show. 

 This is said to be the first boys' apple club in the world. 



1914. 



