PACIFIC SALMON FISHERIES. 179 
(naming year) pack, subject to buyers’ approval of opening prices when named; the 
option being granted buyers of confirming the total number of cases specified below; con- 
firming a smaller quantity, or declining any confirmation. 
furthermore agrees that buyers shall have the option of increasing quantities 
listed below, when he names opening prices for his packers, contingent upon his 
ability to secure at that time an increased allotment from his packers. In event 
secures an increased allotment from his packers insufficient to meet all increases 
requested by his patrons, he will distribute such increase as he can secure among 
the dealers who have filed conditional contracts with him, according to the date order 
that said contracts have been received in his office. 
Under this form of contract the packer is expected to be ready to 
fulfill the terms of same, except in case of a short pack, when the 
orders are generally prorated, i. e., all orders are proportionately 
reduced until they come within the compass of the pack. Should 
the buyer dislike the opening price he has the privilege of canceling 
the order. While this latter privilege may not, at first glance, look 
_ just to the packer, yet it is doubtful if any buyer would place a 
“‘future’’ order unless he was assured of a chance to cancel his order 
should he feel that too high a sum was fixed in the opening prices. 
Some canneries contract to sell their entire output to one buyer, and 
the price fixed is usually the opening prices for the year in question. 
In such cases the buyer and seller are both compelled to abide by the 
price, no matter how unjust one or the other may consider it. 
The association does not announce its opening prices until late in 
August or early in September, when the greater part of the packing 
is over with and a good line on the total pack has been obtained, and 
it speaks well for the discernment of the officials of the association 
that their judgment as to prices should meet with the general approval 
as often as it does. ) 
OPENING PRICES FOR A SERIES OF YEARS. 
Below are shown the yearly opening prices on the various grades 
and sizes from 1890 to 1915. The most interesting part of this is 
the increase shown in the value of high-grade salmon. Columbia 
River chinook was quoted at $1.05 for 1-pound talls in 1897, and it 
gradually advances until in 1915 it is quoted at $1.90. Alaska red 
1-pound talls in 1897 sold for 90 cents, the lowest during the period 
in question, advancing, with occasional recessions, until in 1911 it 
reached high-water mark of $1.60. In 1915 the opening price was 
$1.50. In 1897 Puget Sound 1-pound tall sockeye sold for 80 cents, 
10 cents below Alaska red. In 1898 it sold for 20 cents less than reds. 
In 1902 it sold for $1 as compared with 95 cents for Alaska red, and 
from that time on brought a higher price, being quoted at $1.90 in 
1915 as compared with $1.50 for Alaska red. 
Medium red or coho did not figure in the opening prices until 1908, 
when Puget Sound coho sold for 5 cents a dozen more than Alaska 
coho. Very shortly thereafter, however, both were classed together 
