-6 
ples represented 6.5, 4.9, and S.6 per cent, respectively, 
of the commercial apple crop for those years. The simple 
average for the three years is 7 per cent. The average 
annual exports for the six year period, 1916 to 1931, were 
5.6 per cent of the commercial crop. 
The United States is the greatest fruit producing as 
well as the greatest fruit consuming country in the world. 
Apples represent fifteen per cent of the total value of 
fruit exports. 
Statistics for a period of years show that more than 
two-thirds of our apple exports (in value) are to the United 
Kingdom (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales). Tile Scandi¬ 
navian countries are becoming more important markets as il¬ 
lustrated by the increase in exports since 1910. With an 
improvement in economic conditions Germany should again be¬ 
come an important market for American apples. 
The average annual shipments cf apples in the United 
States for the years 1916 to 1930 were approximately 75,000 
cars. It is a big undertaking to move this volume of a 
product to market without waste or loss. 
In the Pacific Northwest alone where in 1919 sixty per 
cent of the fruit was shipped during October and November, 
it required an average of 415 cars at the sidings per day 
for each shipping day in those two months to move the crop 
to market• 
From 1915 to 1930 prices of apples practically trebled 
while the purchasing power remained almost constant at 74 
to 76 until 1919 when it rose to 90 followed by a fall to 
85 in 1930. The secular trend of purchasing power of apples 
