EUROPE AS A MARKET FOR OUR APPLES AND PEARS 
four years $4,000,000 per annum. Canada 
is now our strongest competitor, sharing 
about equally with us in the amount of 
exports. Belgium and France are the 
next in trade, Australia and Tasmania 
following. We are not competitors with 
the Australian and Tasmanian apples, for 
they come into the markets at a different 
time of the year, mostly during May and 
June, while our apples are almost entirely 
fall and winter varieties. 
The great bulk of apples in the mar- 
kets of Great Britain are shipped in bar- 
rels, and measured by the Pacific-coast 
standard of quality and pack, are of a 
very inferior grade. The consumption of 
apples in Great Britain is, however, 
largely for cooking purposes, and on this 
account it consumes an enormous quanti- 
ty of inferior and low-grade stock. The 
bulk of these apples is bought by brok- 
ers from the orchard, thrown into the 
barrels in an indiscriminate and careless 
way, and shipped without thought or care 
for the reputation of the business. This 
style and method of handling fruit, when 
it is met by the superior skill and care 
of growers and shippers of the North Pa- 
cific coast, will be very readily discovered 
in the trade. Scabby, wormy, scaly fruit 
is the rule rather than the exception in 
the apples shipped from the Atlantic 
coast of the United States. 
Commanding the apple trade of Great 
Britain in the future depends on the 
quality of the apple placed in the English 
markets and the style of packing. The 
class of trade to which the growers for 
export can appeal, is the class that buy 
the best goods and pay high prices. The 
most serious obstacle at present standing 
in the way is that American fruits, as a 
rule, are not well packed and graded. 
Also the cost of transportation has been 
against us. With the building of the 
Panama canal the cost of transportation 
ought to be reduced, and with the educa- 
tion of the producer the quality and pack- 
1323 
ing of fruit will be of higher grade. A 
little better understanding in relation to 
the varieties for the market in future 
plantings would be of great value. The 
taste of the British apple consumers de- 
mands a fruit filled with juice; a dry ap- 
ple will never be popular there. Sufii- 
cient acid to make it a good cooker is 
also important. 
The present cost of transporting a box 
of apples to the Huropean market from 
the Pacific coast is 75 cents. 
The great market for the apples of the 
Northwest in Hurope cannot well begin 
until the completion of the Panama 
canal. Considerable quantities of good 
grade stock will find a market there from 
now on, at a profitable rate, and ship- 
ments ought to increase very materially 
every year, but the market for the Pa- 
cific-coast apples is not likely to reach 
into the million dollar class until the 
completion of the Panama canal. By that 
time, however, shipments ought to reach 
in the markets of Europe from three to 
Six million dollars per annum, and cost 
of transportation should not be over 35 
cents per box. 
Apples are coming into the British mar- 
ket in January and February from the 
Pacific coast badly injured by freezing. 
This, of course, will not occur in ship- 
ments by steamer after the opening of 
the canal. 
The following are the leading varieties 
of apples being imported into Great 
Britain, with their selling value accord- 
ing to the order in which they are men- 
tioned: 
Grimes Golden, Yellow Newtown Pip- 
pin, King, Northern Spy, Jonathan, Rus. 
set, Baldwin, Gano and Ben Davis. 
There are many other kinds in the mar 
kets, both in barrels and boxes, but it 
is safe to take the above as all being 
standard varieties. Kings, Jonathans and 
the best of the Baldwins are marketed 
before the first of the year. 
