19 1 4 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page 17 





\]m 



208 PAGE ANNUAL— 



Ready Early In January 



-Mailad FREE to 



Anyone, Anywhere. 



Shows Seeds, Poultry, 



Bee and Stock Suppliesi 



SprayB and Fertilizers. 



TheCHAS H.LILLY CO. 



Sealtic and Poftland 



ANNUAL ) 



groups could be harmonized under one 

 policy and other groups harmonized 

 under another policy which would re- 

 duce the number of marketing con- 

 cerns. This suggestion may not carry 

 out the idea advanced by some that all 

 of the fruit could be marketed through 

 one agency. This may be done; there 

 are many who believe that it could be 

 done and there are others who believe 

 that it is doubtful that the fruit in 

 the Northwest could ever be marketed 

 entirely through one concern, and even 

 go so far as to say that if it was such 

 an arrangement would be indefinite in 

 its continuance. However, be all that 

 as it may, it seems certainly advisable 

 to reduce the number of marketing 

 concerns. 



The January edition of "Better Fruit" 



will be devoted to spraying and will 

 contain everything that is interesting, 

 valuable and new in reference to 

 spraying that is at all recent. In addi- 

 tion to this, it will give publicity to 

 the Manufacturers' and Land Products 

 Show in Portland, with illustrations 

 of some of the exhibits, and also will 

 feature the National Apple Show at 

 Spokane with a story and illustrations. 

 Publicity in "Better Fruit" in reference 

 to these shows will be confined princi- 

 pally to the fruit displays, for the rea- 

 son that "Better Fruit" deals almost 

 exclusively with fruit. 



Cost of Harvesting. — In harvesting 



apples there are ten items of expense. — 

 the price of the box, hauling knocked- 

 down boxes to the orchard, making up, 

 Iiicking apples, hauling apples from 

 tlie orchard, gra(Mng, packing, extra 

 packing house expense, nailing up and 

 hauling to the depot. It is not often 

 that growers can give you an itemized 

 expense per box along this line. 

 Every business man connected with a 

 factory aims to ascertain the cost of 

 each particular part of the work. This 

 is absolutely necessary in order to 

 manufacture at Tuininuun cost. It is 

 eciually important that the grower, too, 

 should know the actual cost of each 

 one of these items in order to see 

 where a saving can be made. 



A few years ago the cihtor of "Better 

 Fruit" published liguies which resulted 

 in nuich discussion and nuich good re- 

 sulted. Tiiey enabled many orchard- 

 ists, by comparison, to ascertain where 

 the expense was too higli and tlierei)y 



reduce the harvesting expense. Below 

 are given the items of cost of each one 

 of these transactions on a crop of 

 seven carloads, the total cost being 3G 

 cents per box: 



(1) Box $0,095 



(2) Hauling k.d. boxes to orchard 005 



(31 Making up box 01 



(41 Picking 0863 



(5) Orchard hauling 0116 



(6) Grading 0468 



(7) Packing 04 



(8) Extra packing house expense 005 



(9) Nailing up Oil 



(10) Hauling to depot 017 



$0.3277 

 Paper -033 



$0.3607 



One grower claims to have harvested 

 his apple crop at 27 cents per box. 

 Others state their crop cost as high as 

 50 cents to harvest. In the itemized 

 list given above the picking expense 

 can be reduced to 4 cents. The pick- 

 ing cost is especially high in this case, 

 as the crop was scattered over a large 

 acreage and the yield light. A number 

 of growers have contracted with their 

 help to pick their apples at 3 cents 

 per box, loose, which is equivalent to 

 about 4 cents per box packed. The 

 grading cost can easily be reduced 

 under favorable conditions to 3 cents 

 per box, and possibly may be done for 

 2V2 cents per box. A number of grow- 

 ers have employed packers at $2.50 per 

 day with the understanding that the 

 packer must pack 100 boxes in order to 

 earn .$2.50, reducing the packing cost 

 2% cents per box or less. Nailing up 

 can be reduced to about three-quarters 

 of a cent per box. 



To summarize, a saving of picking can 



be made on above itemized expense of ..$0.0463 



On grading 0168 



On packing 015 



On nailing up 002 



Or a saving of $0.0801 



Thereby reducing the cost to 28 cents 

 per box, which apparently seems to 

 be what would be considered the 

 minimum. 



More Profit in Apples. — Another edi- 

 torial in this issue shows where a 

 reduction in harvesting can and is 

 being made; another editorial points a 

 way to reducing the selling expense of 

 our marketing concerns by reducing 

 the number and at the same time se- 

 curing a better price. To this must be 

 addecl another important feature in 

 connection with the cost, — that of re- 

 ducing the cost of growing or produc- 

 ing the crop. In these three items con- 

 siderable money can be saved the 

 grower, but perhaps more im])ortant 

 than this in enajjling the grower to 

 make more money is the imijortance 

 and the necessity of reducing the retail 

 price to the consumer. In the year 

 1909 the editor of "Better Fruit" was 

 invited by Professor Thatcher, then 

 Director of the Fxperiment Station at 

 Pullman, Washington, to accompany 

 the lecturers on their institute meet- 

 ings throughout Yakima Valley, which 

 covered the territory from one end of 

 tlie valley to the other, and lasted a 

 week, consisting of eighteen dilferent 

 meetings. At that time the Northwest- 

 ern apples were selling from 75 cents 

 to .fL.^O per dozen, retail. The editor 



This rnanbelievesinenjoying 

 life. He lives in the country 

 hut he has the advantage of 

 the city. His home is equip- 

 ped with kitchen sinks, hot 

 and cold water, modern bath 

 room, sanitary toilet, wash room. 

 His garden has taps here and 

 there and his dairyhouse and 

 barn has running water where 

 needed It cuts down his own 

 work and very much reduces 

 the work of the women folks. 

 He likes it, his wife likes it, 

 and his children like it. He 

 had the goodness of judg- 

 ment to invest in a 



WATER SYSTEM 



Hundreds of these systems 

 are making country homes 

 brighter and more comfort- 

 able. They are economical, 



dept-ndable. simple If you have 

 a well, cistern, sprinu or creek 

 on your place you can have run- 

 ning water in your home. We 

 guarantee satisfaction. 



Now the chap below believes in 



"cettine alone with things as 



they are." His wife totes water 



from the well, lifts the pail a 



hundredtimesaday Hespends 



hours pumpinewaterfor 5tock 



u'hen he hasother thincstodo. 



His children leave forthe city 



as soon as thty can get aw'ay 



where they can '"at least have 



a few comforts.'" 



Don't you think you'd better 



lake our tip and send your 



name and addre*^^ for our 



Free Book No.WIS • called 



' Thrtueh iht Ert af t^t Camtra. " 



Mitchell, Lewis & 

 Staver Co. 



Portland, Or. 

 Spokane and Boise 



wnrN WRITlNT. .\DVERTISERR MENTION BFTTER FRtJIT 



