2 BULLETIN 935, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
reau. Shippers furnished copies of invoices and sales records. 
Beginning with the 1916 season, telegraphic reports of shipments 
were received daily from division superintendents of common car- 
riers serving the Pacific Northwest, and shippers reported their 
f. o. b. and contract sales each day such sales were made. From 
data thus obtained a summary of the distribution of several of 
the principal varieties and their seasonal price trends has been 
compiled. 1 
Each season since the fall of 1916 the Bureau has issued daily mar- 
ket reports from Spokane showing the number of cars shipped from 
the Pacific Northwest and in the United States as a whole. In addi- 
tion, primary destinations of Northwest shipments, the jobbing prices 
prevailing in the principal consuming and distributing markets of 
the United States, and the f. o. b. prices at several of the principal 
points of shipment in competing districts were shown. These re- 
ports were mailed daily to growers and shippers. The number 
of individuals served has varied from season to season, with a maxi- 
mum of approximately 4,000. 
Data gathered by these means and presented in this bulletin do 
not cover every car that was shipped, but are believed to be repre- 
sentative and sufficiently comprehensive and complete to justify 
their use as a basis for a statistical analysis of the marketing of 
the greater part of the boxed apple crop of the United States. 
PRODUCTION. 
The districts of the Pacific Northwest now prominent in apple 
production are of recent origin compared with the established dis- 
tricts in the eastern States. They cover well-defined areas in each 
State, where soil and climatic conditions are particularly favorable 
to apple production. The tree census of the Wenatchee, district 
taken by the Wenatchee North Central Washington Growers' League 
in 1915 showed less than 10 per cent of the apple trees to be 10 
or more years of age. This district was then, and still is, the 
largest in point of apple production in the Pacific Northwest, and 
may in point of development be considered as representative of the 
entire section. 
The principal districts, 2 in the order of their importance in pro- 
duction, are the Wenatchee Valley, Yakima Valley, Hood Eiver 
district, Spokane district, Southern Idaho district, Walla Walla- 
1 See Exhibit No. 1, p. 11. 
2 A complete list of billing stations for the entire Pacific Northwest segregated into 
districts and showing the 1919-20 shipments from each station will be found in Exhibit 
No. 2, p. 11. 
