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BETTER FRUIT 



December 



BETTER FRUIT 



HOOD RIVER, OREGON 



OCHcial Organ of The Northwest Fruit Growers' Association 

 A Montlily Illustrated Magazine Published in the 

 Interest of Modem Fruit Growing and Marketing 



All Communications Should Be Addressed and Remittances 

 Made Payable to 



Better Fruit Publishing Company 



E. H. SHEPARD, Editor and Publisher 

 H. E. VAN DEMAN, Contributing Editor 



STATE ASSOCIATE EDITORS 

 OREGON 



C. I. Lewis. Horticulturist CorvalUa 



H. S. Jackson. Pathologist Corrallli 



H. F. Wilson. Entomologist Corrallls 



WASHINGTON 



A. L. Melander. Entomologist Pullman 



O. M. Morris. Horticulturist PuUman 



COLORADO 



C. P. Gillette, Director and Entomologist Fort CoUlna 



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



Engineering. State Agricultural College Fort Collins 



E. P. Taylor, 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, Entomologist WatsonTllle 



BRITISH COLUMBIA 

 R. M. Winslow, Provincial Horticulturist Victoria 



SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: 



In the United St.ntes. $1.00 per year In advance 



Canada and foreign, including postage. $1.50 



AD\T,RT1SING RATES ON APPLICATION 



Entered as second-class matter December 27, 1906, at the 



PoRtolHce at Hood River, Oregon, under Act 



of Congress of March 3. 1879. 



By-Products. — In the year 1912 when 

 the crop of apples was very heavy and 

 the prices hiw, the editor of "Better 

 Fruit" saw tlie necessity of only ship- 

 ping high-grade fruit to Eastern mar- 

 kets because the low grade did not 

 justify the expense necessary in mar- 

 keting it. In other words, it did not 

 pay a profit. Consequently after giv- 

 ing the matter a great deal of serious 

 thought, it seemed wise to take steps 

 to encourage the development of vine- 

 gar factories, cider mills, evaporators 

 and factories for making various by- 

 products. After several months of in- 

 vestigation a number of people were 

 found who had had practical experi- 

 ence and knowledge in this line of 

 business, and from them was secured a 

 number of excellent articles of a prac- 

 tical nature in reference to the by- 

 product industry. When all of this 

 data was secured, it was published in 

 a special edition of "Better Fruit" in 

 May, 1913, and called the "By-Product 

 Edition." The stimulus was quickly 

 felt by fruitgrowers of the Northwest 

 and they were quick to realize the 

 value of this suggestion. Consequently 

 this sub.ject was discussed very vig- 

 orously and very generally by the fruit- 

 growers of the Northwest during the 

 year 191.'?. Officers connected with the 

 National Apple .Show at Spokane have 

 always .shown their progressiveness in 

 assisting the fruit industry in every 

 way possible and they realized the im- 

 portance of this industry, and therefore 

 accorded by-products a special place 

 on the program in the conference of 

 growers. The result was that the 

 movement immediately jumped into 

 popularity and resulted in a committee 

 being appointed to carry on research 

 work along this subject. This commit- 

 tee has done some splendid work and 



\ 



accumulated an immense amount of in- 

 formation and data of great impor- 

 tance. All of this was embodied in 

 their report which was given to the 

 fruitgrowers at the Seventh Annual 

 National .\pple Show in Spokane from 

 November Ifith to 21st. In the mean- 

 time, in April, 1914, "Better Fruit" pub- 

 lished another special edition along 

 this same line. After the report of the 

 committee was received and accepted 

 a new committee was appointed to 

 carry on this work, including many of 

 the old members of the original com- 

 mittee. It seems to be the consensus 

 of opinion that a number of by-product 

 factories can be built throughout the 

 Northwest, and will be built, either co- 

 operatively by the growers themselves 

 or perhaps in some localities by indi- 

 viduals or privately incorporated com- 

 panies. It is the desire of the commit- 

 tee to assist in building by-product fac- 

 tories and to give all information pos- 

 sible. In addition to this, the commit- 

 tee believe that some central market- 

 ing agencies must be utilized or estab- 

 lished to handle the output in order to 

 obtain the most satisfactory results for 

 the by-products produced. This can be 

 done much better by a concern han- 

 dling an immense volume of this line 

 of business than it could be done by a 

 small number of individual concerns. 

 The overhead expense of selling would 

 be reduced by handling the output 

 Ihiough one large concern and the held 

 could be more thoroughly covered by 

 one concern with a large number of 

 salesmen than it could by a lot of indi- 

 vidual concerns. In addition to this, 

 one large concern can advertise and 

 build up the trade and create the de- 

 mand more satisfactorily than a 

 number of small individual concerns. 

 There are growers in many districts 

 who believe in co-operative by-product 

 factories. There are some who be- 

 lieve in privately-owned by-product 

 factories. The solution of tliis prob- 

 lem seems to be one that will depend 

 a good deal on circumstances and the 

 condition of the growers financially. 

 Without question a larger proportion 

 of the growers believe in co-operative 

 work. If they are in a position to 

 establish a co-operative by-product 

 factory all well and good. Good judg- 

 ment would dictate the advisability of 

 going ahead. Where growers are not 

 able to finance a co-operative institu- 

 tion without question the advisable 

 thing to do will be to encourage a pri- 

 vately incorporated institution to take 

 care of the waste and convert it into 

 by-products. Every grower always 

 has, and always will have, a percentage 

 of cull apples that are hardly bigh 

 enough grade to justify packing, which 

 will vary perhaps from ten to twenty 

 per cent. On younger orchartls the 

 percentage might be smaller. At the 

 present going prices of cull apples per 

 ton of -'G.OO in some districts this 

 would amount to !?10.00 or .$20.00 per 

 acre to the fruitgrower, and it seems 

 safe to say in many cases that it would 

 equal the maximum figure of J?20.00. 

 The grower, in harvesting the crop, has 

 to pay the expense of picking, grading. 



etc., and whatever he receives from the 

 by-product factory for his cull apples 

 is money saved. A man with forty 

 acres, with a good by-product factory 

 nearby, will secure an income of •*80b 

 more than he would if he had no place 

 to dispose of his cull apples. The fruit 

 industry of the Northwest is probably 

 somewhere in the neighborhood of 

 $5,000,000 to .'?10,000,000,— an immense 

 sum. A comparison with California 

 will give some idea of the opportuni- 

 ties in the Northwest for disposing of 

 their fruit in other ways than selling 

 it fresh. The canned fruit industry 

 alone in California amounts to between 

 .«25,000,000 and .¥30,000,000. XNTiile the 

 editor has never seen any figures as to 

 the value of by-products in California, 

 he has been informed that the total 

 amount received in California from 

 other sources than fresh fruit, such 

 as canned fruits, evaporated fruits, 

 raisins, wine, etc., amounts to approxi- 

 mately .$75,000,000 or nearly fifteen 

 times as much as the fresh-fruit in- 

 dustry of the Northwest. 



Reducing the Cost of Apples From 



the Packing House to the Retailer. — 

 The editor of "Better Fruit" took part 

 in this discussion at the National Apple 

 Show at Spokane. Considerable prog- 

 ress has been and is being made along 

 this line. The first item of considera- 

 tion in this subject was reducing the 

 harvesting cost, which will be ex- 

 Ijlained in detail in a separate article 

 in this issue. The second important 

 feature in the discussion pertained to 

 reducing the selling expense of our 

 selling organizations. This discussion 

 was ably handled by the editor of the 

 Spokesman-Review, a man very highly 

 esteemed by fruitgrowers in the North- 

 west, well and favorably known by all. 

 His idea was that owing to the large 

 number of selling concerns already in 

 existence in the field, that there must 

 necessarily be a large duplication of 

 overhead expense. With suggestion and 

 advice he conveyed the idea that the 

 next important step in the Northwest 

 would be for the fruitgrowers to re- 

 duce the number of marketing con- 

 cerns. There are several methods of 

 marketing in vogue at the present 

 time; first, the co-operative associa- 

 tion, owned and controlled by the 

 grower; second, marketing concerns 

 which are incorporated with a definite 

 capital, not necessarily confined to 

 growers; third, by private concerns 

 which are engaged in handling fruit 

 for the fruitgrower at so much per box, 

 or sometimes buying the same outright 

 from the grower; fourth, by dealers 

 who handle large quantities of apples 

 for individual growers, either buying 

 the same direct or making an advance 

 and selling on a consignment basis; 

 fifth, individuals who either sell their 

 crop direct, accept an advance on con- 

 signment or place it on consignment 

 without an advance. Some of these 

 different marketing concerns are more 

 or less similar in their policy and in all 

 probability could be harmonized with 

 others in exislcnce. In other words, 

 it would seem possible that certain 



