Page 48 BETTER FRUIT Jmum-y 



APPLE ANNUAL AT WATSONVILLE, CALIFORNIA 



BY JONATHAN EDWARDS, WATSONVILLE, CALIFORNIA 



THE first all-Califijrnia apple show 

 had its inception in October, 1909, 

 when a committee of twenty-five 

 local growers, packers and business men, 

 was appointed by Air. E. A. Hall, presi- 

 dent of the Commercial League of 

 Watsonville, to consider the advisability 

 of holding an exliibition of the fruit, the 

 production and marketing of which has 

 long constituted the principal industry 

 of the Pajaro Valley. 



For a considerable period the yearly 

 shipments of ajiples from this \ aney had 



exceeded three thousand carloads. The 

 yearly profits from the industry had run 

 into millions of dollars. The production 

 of other sections was increasing. Com- 

 petition was constantly growing keener. 

 This section had given comparatively 

 little attention to the work of advertising 

 itself or its products. As in all other 

 sections there was room for improvement 

 in methods of production and marketing. 

 The holding of an annual apple show in 

 Watsonville was s'lggested as being one 

 thing well calculated to increase the 



demand for the fruit, extend her markets, 

 and through the rivalry created, to stimu- 

 late growers to produce better fruit and 

 the packers to raise their standard. 



An executive committee of fifteen was 

 selected and on November 11, 1909, for 

 the purpose of expediting their business, 

 incorporated under the name Watsonville 

 Apple Annual Association. The move- 

 ment thus inaugurated had its culmination 

 in the "Apple Annual" of 1910, "An Apple 

 Show Where Apples Grow," in magni- 

 tude by far the greatest and in quality 

 the equal of any apple show up to that 

 time held. 



By means of a municipal bond issue 

 funds were raised and an auditorium, of 

 the dimensions of 100 feet by 215 feet, 

 having gallery space of approximately 

 one-half that on the main floor, was con- 

 structed by the City of Watsonville. 

 (Originally designed to be merely a local 

 affair, it was thought that the show could 

 be housed in this building. However, it 

 was soon apparent that there was a 

 demand, almost universal, that the scope 

 of the show be made statewide. This 

 demand was met, and when the exhibits 

 were all in place they crowded to over- 

 flowing not only the building, but three 

 huge tents, occupying in all more than 

 70,000 square feet. 



It is difficult to con\ey an adequate 

 idea of the magnitude of the exhibition 

 through the medium of mere figures. In 

 fact, through lack of any standard of 

 comparison, a large proportion of those 

 who saw the show failed to obtain a true 

 conception of its size. Moreover, to 

 residents of the locality familiar v/ith the 

 valley's daily shipments of as many as 

 ninety-five carloads, its size did not 

 appeal as it would and did to those not 

 familiar with operations on such a scale. 

 To those who were not privileged to sec 

 the show the story must be told and 

 resort to statistics must be had. 



The total number of entries, in all 

 classes except industrial machinery, spray 

 materials and fertilizers, was 1,219. as 

 follows: Fifteen in the carload class. 29 

 in the 100-box class, 30 in the 2.5-box 

 class, 116 in the 10-box class, 175 in the 

 .'i-box class, 240 in the 1-box class, 892 

 in the plate displays, 14 feature exhibits, 

 10 of evaporated apples, 5 of factory and 

 7 of domestic by-products. There were 

 entered in competition 14,925 commer- 

 cially packed boxes. Altogether there 

 were exhibited 2,355,283 apples, or more 

 than 26 carloads of 040 boxes each. 



An accurate statement of the total 

 number of varieties shown is impossible, 

 for the reason that no account was kept 

 of those shown in the mixed lots. The 

 scope is fairly well shown, however, by 

 the number of varieties exhibited in the 

 unmixed lots. There were four straight 

 carloads of the Yellow Newtown Pippin, 

 ;hree of the Red Pearmain, two of the 

 Yellow Belleflox- er, one each of the Lang- 

 ford Seedling, the Esopus Spitzenberg 

 and the White Winter Pearmain and 

 three mixed cars, representing seven 

 additional varieties, making thirteen in 

 all. In the lOO-box lots there were but 



Engraved by hicks-L hatten hngi avi iig Company, Portland, Oregon 

 VIEW DOWN CENTER AISLE OF TENT 2, WATSONVILLE AW'LE ANNUAL 

 WATSONVILLE, CALIFORNIA, 1910 

 In each of the two large tents there are ten carloads of apples on exhibition 



Engraved by Hicks-Chatten Engraving Conifauy. Portland. Oregon 

 GOLD MEDAL CAR OF YELLOW BELLFLOWERS AT APPLE .\NXUAL W\TSONVILTE 



CALIFORNIA, 1910 



V,y .MacDonald & Sons. Watsonville, California. In color and uniformity this was probably the finest 



car of Bellflowers ever put up. 



I 



