402 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE MARKETING OF AM APPLE CROP. 



L. R. ALDERMAN, HURLEY, S. D. 



(Read before South Dakota State Horticultural Society, Yankton, 

 December 14th, 1898.) 



, The marketing of an apple crop has grown in a few short years 

 from the harvest peddled in grain sacks in a lumber wagon to the 

 car load consignment. Each year has added new phases to the 

 problem. Old obstacles have been overcome, and new ones have 

 presented themselves. This will probably be our portion for years 

 to come. We began by supplying dealers in neighboring towns, 

 and soon found that by carefully sorting the fruit and delivering in 

 good condition we could successfully compete with the foreign pro- 

 duct. Our first difficulty was in determining when to pick the 

 apples. If picked too soon they wither, and if allowed to become 

 the least over ripe the harvest apple has a short existence. Even at 

 this time I know no rules to formulate, as every variety ripens differ- 

 ently, and experience is the only teacher. I wish to add in this con- 

 nection that I discovered that the same varieties mature earlier 

 with us than they do farther south and their^season is much shorter. 



As our business grew and assumed the commercial phase,we had 

 to acquire all the knowledge of a commission house in packing, 

 shipping and selling fruit, and perhaps our greatest discovery at 

 this time was our increasing expense account. I have, however* 

 learned many things that are gratifying. I have found that I can 

 keep customers year after year, and that South Dakota apples can 

 enter the field of competition and carry off the palm every time. A 

 car of apples shipped to Sioux City this fall received favorable men- 

 ♦ tion in several of the city papers, and they were held at 50 cents a 

 barrel in advance of all stock from Missouri and the east. This has 

 been a red letter year for us, beginning with a large strawberry crop, 

 an immense yield from the cherry trees.and soon after this the market- 

 ing of green Duchess in bushel boxes. Our fall crop yielded twenty 

 to twenty-five hundred barrels, and we made three thousand five 

 hundred gallons of cider vinegar. 



I shall now give my idea of the most profitable method of market- 

 ing a crop of one thousand bushels, or less, a yield which a number 

 of men in this state realized this year. I do not think a crop of this 

 size will return a profit if apple barrels are shipped in, expensive 

 packers hired, and an attempt m&de to market the apples in a 

 commercial way. Almost as impractical is the method of securing 

 sugar barrels, salt and other odd sized packages, covering with 

 gunny sacking and consigning to Tom, Dick and Harry. If the 

 dealer is unscrupulous, he secures the fruit paying the fright; if 

 honest he will sell the damaged apples for what he can and retain a 

 fair commission. In either case the returns are disappointing. I 

 have seen this fruit all over the state, and it hardly affects the mar- 

 ket. I saw eight barrels of Whitney's No. 20 sell for $8 in Mitchell 

 this fall. These were four-bushel sugar barrels covered with sack- 

 ing. There was a net return of ten cents a bushel to the grower. 

 On the the same day I sold Whitney's at $2.25 a barrel in ventilated 

 apple barrels. 



