Ta a 
APPLE MARKET INVESTIGATIONS, 1914-15. 17 
shipment upon one of the steamers, showed overripe condition and 
slight decay, supposedly as the result of poor refrigeration conditions. 
All of these Panama shipments were sent across the Atlantic. 
Although no cold-storage space was available on board the trans- 
Atlantic lines, practically all of the fruit, with the exception of 8 
carlots previously mentioned, was said to have shown excellent 
condition and sold for relatively good prices in the European markets. 
The water freight rate from the Northwest ports via the Panama 
route to Brooklyn is 55 cents per hundred pounds, whereas the railroad 
rate is $1 per hundred pounds. It is to be remembered, however, 
that the Panama route is available only to those fruit districts which 
are near the Pacific coast, and that when wharfage, dockage, and 
inland freight are included there is a relatively small saving even for 
those districts. 
It is estimated that the saving to Hood River on shipments via 
Panama is 16 cents per box for apples which would have gone in 
railway ventilators and 27 cents per box for refrigerators. The 
saving to Yakima and Wenatchee is from 8 to 10 cents on ventilator 
stock and 18 to 20 cents on refrigerator stock. Owing to the long 
time (approximately 37 days) required for shipment through the 
canal as compared with shipment by rail and the resultant risks, 
it is thought that the actual saving per box is inconsiderable, and that 
for this route to be largely profitable to Pacific Northwest shippers 
the rate of transportation must be lowered and trans-Atlantic cold- 
storage space must be available upon arrival at New York City. 
As far as physical handling is concerned, it is believed that the 
canal route has been proven entirely practicable, although its use 
upon the basis of present rates necessarily must be confined to ship- 
ping points near the Pacific coast and to markets on the Atlantic 
seaboard or beyond. Apples coming through the canal at present 
can not be distributed profitably inland from the Atlantic coast, for 
when terminal and inland charges are added this route can not com- 
pete with the transcontinental railways. 
EXPORT MARKETS, 
THE UNITED KINGDOM AND EUROPE. 
It has been stated that prior to the shipping season of 1914 it was 
generally believed, under the war conditions, that Europe could not 
be expected to demand its usual quota of apples; consequently 
there was much speculation as to what would be done with the 
export surplus. When the crop of winter varieties began to move, 
shippers cautiously forwarded considerable quantities to England. 
Although sales were not high, the low level of prices obtaining in 
the United States justified continued shipments across the Atlantic. 
4534°—Bull. 302—15——3 
