2 BULLETIN 935, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



lean. Shippers furnished copies of invoices and sales records. 

 Beginning with the 1916 season, telegraphic reports of shipments 

 were received daily from division superintendents of common car- 

 riers serving the Pacific Northwest, and shippers reported their 

 f. o. b. and contract sales each day such sales were made. From 

 data thus obtained a summary of the distribution of several of 

 the principal varieties and their seasonal price trends has been 

 compiled. 1 



Each season since the fall of 1916 the Bureau has issued daily mar- 

 ket reports from Spokane showing the number of cars shipped from 

 the Pacific Northwest and in the United States as a whole. In addi- 

 tion, primary destinations of Northwest shipments, the jobbing prices 

 prevailing in the principal consuming and distributing markets of 

 the United States, and the f. o. b. prices at several of the principal 

 points of shipment in competing districts w 7 ere shown. These re- 

 ports were mailed daily to growers and shippers. The number 

 of individuals served has varied from season to season, with a maxi- 

 mum of approximately 4,000. 



Data gathered by these means and presented in this bulletin do 

 not cover every car that was shipped, but are believed to be repre- 

 sentative and sufficiently comprehensive and complete to justify 

 their use as a basis for a statistical analysis of the marketing of 

 the greater part of the boxed apple crop of the United States. 



PRODUCTION. 



The districts of the Pacific Northwest now prominent in apple 

 production are of recent origin compared with the established dis- 

 tricts in the eastern States. They cover well-defined areas in each 

 State, where soil and climatic conditions are particularly favorable 

 to apple production. The tree census of the Wenatchee district 

 taken by the Wenatchee North Central Washington Growers' League 

 in 1915 showed less than 10 per cent of the apple trees to be 10 

 or more years of age. This district was then, and still is, the 

 largest in point of apple production in the Pacific Northwest, and 

 may in point of development be considered as representative of the 

 entire section. 



The principal districts, 2 in the order of their importance in pro- 

 duction, are the Wenatchee Valley, Yakima Valley, Hood River 

 district, Spokane district, Southern Idaho district, Walla Walla- 



1 See Kxhibit No. 1, p. 11. 



2 A complete list, of billing stations for the entire Pacific Northwest segregated into 

 districts and showing the 1910-20 shipments from each station will be found in Exhibit 

 No. 2, p. 11. 



