MARKETING WESTERN BOXED APPLES 59 
eer by very heavy apple exports amounting to about 12,000,000 
ushels. 
The commercial crop East and West was light in 1924, with 29 
per cent less in the box region and 13 per cent less in the barrel 
region, compared with 1923. Cold storage and export again took 
an unusually large share of the crop. The current supply was 
moderate at all times. Demand was good and prices tended upward. 
Extra Fancy Winesaps started at $2 to $2.25 f. o. b. and $3 in leading 
eastern markets, but advanced by the end of January to $2.85 f. o. b. 
and $3.50 to $3.75 in the cities, holding firmly to the end of the 
season. City prices of leading varieties and grades generally ranged 
at least $1 per box higher than for the season before. 
Many of the same general conditions prevailed in 1925-26, but 
apple shipments one-fourth larger caused a slowly declining price 
trend through most of the season. Prices closed generally one-third 
below those of the season before. 
Northwestern boxed-apple prices have been more nearly uniform 
than prices of barreled apples from season to season during the 10 years 
following 1913. Extra Fancy grades of leading standard varieties 
like Jonathan, Esopus Spitzenburg, and Winesap have commonly 
sold in eastern ce eet around $3 per box, seldom at more than $4 
during the early part of the season or less than $2, as compared with 
extremes of $1.50 to $10 per barrel for the Baldwin. Apparently 
the usually smaller output and more thorough and systematic grad- 
ing, packing, and marketing are mainly responsible for the difference 
in market action. 
FORECASTING BOXED-APPLE SEASON 
The market situation of boxed apples depends chiefly on com- 
mercial production. Since the market for boxed apples is in some 
degree independent of the barreled-apple market, the price trend of 
boxed apples responds more to production changes in the box area 
than to those of barreled apples. Thus a small proportion of box 
apples tends, in the commercial crop, to raise the price higher than 
would be expected from consideration of combined production, as 
occurred in 1918, 1920, and 1924. The December prices have often 
shown about the same relation as the size of the respective commercial 
apple crops. The production estimate of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture has been of itself a useful early indicator of the 
December jobbing price. Besides commercial production and the 
proportion of the boxed crop, price influences of some importance 
are the foreign apple productions, particularly in Canada, England, 
and continental Europe, also the size of the California and Florida 
orange crops and, finally, the general price tendency of commodities 
including farm products. The last-mentioned influence was strong 
in the three years 1919, 1920, and 1921, following the war period. 
