76 BULLETIN 1415, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Losses from unused cull stock are especially great whenever apple 
pests and diseases are unusually prevalent or when the weather con- 
ditions have interfered with the effectiveness of spraying operations. 
The supply of culls often exceeds the demand for manufacture of 
by-products. 
Sale by growers to dealers, on contract, has been the popular way 
of disposal, especially when spot cash accompanies delivery of the 
fruit. Cooperative selling ranks second, offering greater risks and 
greater possibilities. Third is commission selling, which places all 
the risk on the grower but gives him a chance to profit by the dealer’s 
skill and judgment in marketing and by the superior quality of the 
roduct. 
2 The cooperative idea is gaining ground in the Northwest. Advan- 
tages claimed for association methods include establishment of a 
reputation for the brand; the economy of buying supplies in large 
quantities; the saving in the use of the telegraph; efficiency in collect- 
ing accounts and in general advertising. 
In some city markets the greater part of the supply is handled by 
the usual classes of wholesale dealers, but auctions sell fully 20 per 
cent of the total boxed apple shipments, including 25 to 90 per cent 
of the sales in some of the large market centers. | 
Red varieties sell better than the green or yellow kinds in most 
markets. Boxed apples dominate many of the western and south- 
western city markets. 
The six most important commercial varieties are Winesap, Jona- 
than, Rome Beauty, Esopus Spitzenburg, Yellow Newtown, and 
Delicious. 
The harvest season extends from the middle of September to the 
middle of November, but local storage permits shipments to con- 
tinue throughout the winter, although the bulk of the shipments are 
made before the first of the year. 
Prices of boxed apples in consuming markets are usually higher 
than for barreled stock, but the increasing supply year by year tends 
to bring the prices nearer together in full-crop seasons. 
Exports of boxed apples have increased from 13,000 boxes in 
1895 to over 6,000,000 in the season of 1923-24. A large proportion 
of the yellow varieties and the medium to small sizes are exported to 
British markets. Canada, northern Europe, and Latin America 
receive many shipments. Sale at auction on arrival is the pre- 
vailing method of disposal. Imports are of comparatively small 
volume, chiefly from British Columbia. Direct shipments by water 
routes to foreign markets may do much to assure profitable disposal 
of surplus fruit. ; 
