APPLE MARKET INVESTIGATIONS, 1914-15. 9 



MARKET PREFERENCES FOR VARIETIES. 



It can be truly said that most markets can always find use for a 

 good quality apple, no matter what its shape or the color of its skin 

 may be. It is probably unreasonable to say that one market will 

 take only certain varieties while another will take other varieties. 

 Conditions are always changing preferences. For instance, due to low 

 prices, there was a noticeably increased demand in some cities, known 

 as barreled-apple markets, for box-packed fruit. The certainty of 

 securing uniformly sized, highly finished fruit at extremely low prices 

 was the only reason given for this condition. 



To illustrate how a market takes a new apple, it may be stated that 

 on October 27 two cars of extra fancy northwestern boxed fruit of 

 fit tie-known variety sold to the retail trade at 75 to 85 cents in 

 one of the markets. Three days later apples of the same grade, pack, 

 and variety were selling well at $1.25 because they had become better 

 known. It must be said, however, that markets do not usually ex- 

 hibit such quick action in taking up new varieties of fruit. A new 

 variety must have exceptional merit to cause a market to act as 

 quickly as in the above case. 



GRADES— BOXED, BARRELED, BULK. 



As has been mentioned previously in this publication under "Mar- 

 ket preferences," some cities are known as boxed-apple markets and 

 some as barreled-apple markets. Other cities or sections are known 

 as good markets in which to dispose of bulk apples. 



Every community, be it known as a boxed, barreled, or bulk apple 

 market, has different classes of consumers who demand different 

 classes of fruit. In New York City, for instance, there were received 

 from various apple-producing sections from October 19 to November 

 21, 1914, 1,882 carloads of barreled apples, 383 carloads of boxed 

 apples, and 443 carloads of bulk apples, or a total of 2,708 carloads of 

 apples for a period of 28 business days. It can not be stated, how- 

 ever, that this proportion would apply in New York City throughout 

 similar apple seasons. 



Table 3 gives the number of carloads of barreled, boxed, and bulk 

 apples received in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and St. Paul for the 

 periods shown, and also the percentages of each class of fruit used by 

 each market. It shows, in addition, the totals for all four markets, 

 and the average percentage of barreled, boxed, and bulk fruit han- 

 dled jointly by all four markets. Thus it will be noted that the 

 barrel-packed fruit predominates by over 50 per cent. 

 4534° Bull. 302— 15 2 



