6 BULLETIN 935, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and shipped under option 1. Shippers have the privilege of two 

 options, known as option 1 and option 2. Shipped under option 1, 

 a car moves at the shipper's risk ; under option 2, at the carrier's risk. 

 Prior to the fall of 1918 an average carload consisted of 630 boxes, 

 but during the last two years 756 boxes to the car were considered a 

 minimum load. 



Storage facilities at points en route and at final destinations dur- 

 ing recent seasons have been taxed to their limits. Eastern cold 

 storages, 7 which include plants in the producing sections of New 

 York State, where many boxed apples are stored, show by their 

 reports on December 1 that they accommodated nearly twice as many 

 cars in 1919 as in the previous year. At points in the Southern 

 States 7 the increase over 1918 was about one-third. In the Middle 

 Western States, 7 which include large centers of consumption and 

 distribution, such as Chicago and Cincinnati, cold-storage holdings 

 in 1919 doubled the 1918 holdings, and in the Southwestern States 7 

 holdings of boxed apples in cold storage were also greater than ever 

 before. 



RATE OF MOVEMENT. 



The Pacific Northwest is now one of the most influential factors in 

 the apple production of the country. 8 The final reports of apple 

 shipments for the United States during the 1919-20 season show the 

 heaviest movement in the history of the apple industry. The ship- 

 ments from the Pacific Northwest, shown graphically 9 for the last 

 four years, clearly indicate the influence of shipments from that sec- 

 tion on the total movement of the country. The peak shipments for 

 the United States and for the Pacific Northwest occur between the 

 15th and 25th of October. In 1919 the peak for the Northwest was 

 reached on October 17, when 516 cars were billed. 



Every effort is made to place as many apples as possible in storage 

 at diverting points and final destinations before the extreme cold 

 weather sets in, and it will be noticed that the movement is more uni- 

 form and gradual after the middle of December. 



The movement during the 1919-20 season was restricted and ham- 

 pered by the generally congested conditions and an insufficient num- 

 ber of cars. Usually, practically all early varieties are shipped 

 before December, when the movement of Winesaps begins, but in 

 the 1919-20 season the Rome Beauty and even some Jonathan and 

 Delicious varieties were not shipped until January. The movement 

 of Winesaps did not begin until very late, and comparatively large 

 quantities of this variety were still in common storage after the latter 

 part of March. 



Washington has made a steady and rapid increase in production, 

 and in 1919 this State alone produced more apples than any other 



T See Exhibit No. 5, p. 19. R See Exhibit No. <!, p. 19. 8 See Exhibit No. 7, p. 20. 



