176 The Commercial Apple Industry 



per cent of all cases, irrigated regions produce boxed fruit 

 and non-irrigated regions barreled or bulk fruit. 



9. Land in irrigated regions is expensive and the fixed 

 costs or overhead charges are high. Bearing orchard land 

 in the Wenatchee Valley is capitalized at nearly $2,000 an 

 acre. In fact, land in bearing orchards in nearly all irri- 

 gated districts is valued at $1,000 an acre or more. Fur- 

 thermore, interest rates in the Northwest, where these irri- 

 gated regions are located, are higher than in the East. 

 From 7 to 8 per cent in the Northwest is a common interest 

 rate which growers have to face. Thus it is important to 

 realize that orchards in irrigated districts, even though the 

 acreage is small, are often valued and actually capitalized 

 at a much larger figure than those of the Central West and 

 East which may be from two to three times their acreage. 



10. Irrigated districts are as yet somewhat isolated, 

 while non-irrigated localities are close to important 

 markets. The great bulk of the fruit from irrigated 

 regions has to travel from 1,000 to 3,000 miles to market. 

 Only a very high grade of fruit of superior marketable 

 quality can hope to compete successfully with fruit grown 

 in eastern districts. At present the northwestern grower 

 puts his fruit up in such good condition that he can put it 

 on the market in the heart of the barreled producing sec- 

 tion and sell it quite readily even if there is great barreled 

 competition. The difficulty of moving the fruit, due to car 

 shortages, has been a drawback to the Northwest fruit in- 

 dustry the past few years. 



The above points are important in differentiating 

 between the characteristics of the irrigated and non-irri- 

 gated regions of the United States. There are many minor 

 ones, such as systems of orchard management which are 



