APPLES— VARIETIES, PACKING. 157 



the State of Oregon, acting under the strict regula- 

 tions of the Hood River Apple Growers' Union, have 

 brought their art to such a pitch of perfection, and 

 work on such a standard of integrity, that thousands 

 of boxes of Hood River apples are bought by whole- 

 sale houses in New York and other large Eastern 

 American cities without their ever seeing or examin- 

 ing a single box, or even a single apple. " The Hood 

 River organization now controls approximately 

 90 per cent, of the fruit of the valley. In four 

 years it has been able to raise the price from 85 cents 

 (Is. lO^d.) to $3.15 (13s. l^d.) for the best grade of 

 Spitzenbergs, and $2.50 (10s. 5d.) for the best Yellow 



Newtowns As an experiment, this past fall 



[1907] the association sent nine car-loads of fall 



apples to England After all expenses were 



paid they netted the Hood River growers $1.32 

 (5s. 6d.) per box." 



These results are achieved by maintaining an 

 inflexible and undeviating honesty in the packing: 

 the contents of the box answer strictly and without 

 exception to the description (grade, tier, etc.) on the 

 outside, and every apple is as near as possible perfect. 



As a further illustration of the value of an unim- 

 peachable commercial reputation, combined with the 

 enhanced value due to novelty of variety, I may quote 

 the following paragraph from the journal Better 

 Fruit (October, 1907, p. 36), the semi-official organ of 

 the Hood River Apple Growers' Union : — 



" The highest price ever known to be obtained for 

 apples was received by Oscar Vanderbilt, a Hood 

 River grower, recently, who sold forty boxes of the 

 Winter Banana variety at $8 (£1 13s. 4d.) per box 



