Some of the apple growers in the Espanola Valley area fail to observe the 

 proper cultural practices such as spraying the trees. As a result the quality 

 of their crop suffers. This reluctance to take proper care of the tree stems 

 from the cost of ©quipmsntj, chemical sprays ^ and other supplies needed and the 



possibility of a crap failur© diss to unfavorable weather conditions, 



S£ora,^@^ F&eilitleii and Marketing laformatlon 



The 1963 apple survey hj tk© New Ms^is© Crop and Livestock Repotting Service 

 showed that there were facilities available in the State for storing approxi- 

 mately 57,000 bushels ©f apples under refrigeration. These storage facilities 

 are slightly understated because of the approximately 10 percent of orchardists 

 which were not interviewed. Non°interviewees were mostly operators of relatively 

 small orchards. Of the 570^000 bushel® produced in 1962 by commercial operators j 

 only about 1 percent was held for sale by November 1. 



The marketing statistics included with the proposed project Indicated that 

 generally most of the fruit grown In the area is sold to truckers who buy directly 

 from the farmer in the field, or at roadside stands to passing motorists ^ or to 

 produce jobbers. Due to lack of cold storage facilitleSi, growers are forced to 

 sell their crop when it is ripSg usually at a low pricej or risk spoilageo 



The apple survey by the New Mexico Crop Reporting Service reported that 

 approximately one°half of the commercial apple crop from Rio Arriba County in the ' 

 Espanola Valley was sold to the wholesale trade as packed fruit in 1962. In terms 

 of prospective large scale marketing operations, this was considerably better than 

 for the State which reported only about one»third of the crop distributed in this 

 fashion (table 5). , ■ 



