Selling New York State Apples. 
Part I. 
APPLE CROP OUTLOOK.—As the season is now 
at hand when the trade papers, inspired by the middle* 
men, who are desirous of buying a large part of the 
1015 apple crop, will begin telling the growers what an 
enormous crop there is throughout the country and also 
what fabulous amounts of money have been lost by 
speculators in years gone by on large crops, it is time 
to lay plans for the marketing of this year’s apples. 
Everything now points to a fair production of apples, 
but we hardly look for what might be called a “bumper” 
crop. Last year the production was very heavy, and it 
is very seldom that two big crops are harvested in suc¬ 
cession. The late cold weather has undoubtedly in¬ 
jured the crop somewhat in New York State, and there 
are many storms and other unavoidable occurrences 
which will decrease the amount of apples produced be¬ 
low the early estimates. But whatever the crop we 
should take steps to market it at best advantage. 
HOW THE BUYERS WORK.—In a few weeks 
buyers from Chicago and elsewhere will be in the or¬ 
chards of New 1'ork State looking for the finest fruit, 
and it is not unlikely that paying prices will be estab¬ 
lished by some of these large buyers for the best fruit 
at prices around $3 per barrel, with the second grade 
at from $2.25 to $2.50 per barrel. The buyers who 
started prices last year at $2.75 per barrel to the far¬ 
mer. for the No. 1 fruit, and $2.25 for the No. 2, even 
with the large crop which was packed last year, have 
made a very satisfactory profit. To be sure in the holi¬ 
day season many apples changed hands at prices which 
were not profitable to the grower or the speculator, but 
on the other hand, the speculators who bought apples 
around $2 to $2.25 per barrel, in the largest districts, 
realized on these purchases a profit of from $1 to $3 per 
barrel. 
FAIR TRICES WANTED.—There is an earnest 
effort being made to bring about a condition whereby 
the grower shall receive for his fine fruit a satisfactory 
price, and at the same time have this same fruit sold 
to the consumers in the large centers of population, such 
as New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, 
at a price which will permit of the largest possible con¬ 
sumption. It is safe to state that no matter what price 
has been paid to the grower during the past 10 years, 
the price was never so high that if only the actual ex¬ 
pense and a profit of 20 per cent, to the dealer had been 
added, the consumer would never have complained about 
the high price of apples. 
GREAT WESTERN PRODUCTION.—Apple grow¬ 
ers throughout the East must take into consideration 
the great increase in the apple production throughout 
the Northwest; they must realize that, with 75 to 85 
carloads of apples of excellent quality produced in the 
Northwest, where only a few years ago no apples were 
raised. Eastern growers must take every precaution to 
put up strictly fine quality apples in an attractive pack¬ 
age, at a fair price in order to hold their share of the 
business. Throughout the Mississippi Valley, New York 
State apples are preferred over the Northwestern box- 
packed apples as a rule, it being generally conceded that 
no apples produced in the Northwest have as fine a 
flavor as those produced in New York State, New Eng¬ 
land and Canada. 
BOX AND BARREL PACKED.—The box-packed 
apple, with its high rate of freight and the other ex¬ 
penses entering in the production, figuring boxing and 
packing, makes it impossible to market these apples at 
less than $2 per box, wholesale, in New York 
City, which is the equivalent of $6 per bar¬ 
rel. When Eastern apple growers receive $3.50 
per barrel, delivered at New York City, there 
is no reason why these apples should not reach 
the consumer at a price not exceeding 50 cents per peck, 
leaving a handsome profit for everybody engaged in the 
distributing business. The box-packed apple man from 
the Northwest, is compelled to ask as much for his ap¬ 
ples in carload lots as the New York grower receives 
from the consumers in New York City. He has there¬ 
fore very little chance to compete for the business on a 
price basis. 
BAD MARKETING SYSTEMS.—For a number of 
years, while apples have been selling high to the con¬ 
sumer in New York City, within 100 miles of New York 
< 'ity apples have been going to waste from the fact that 
they could not be marketed profitably. It is easy to see 
that there is something wrong with the collecting, ship¬ 
ping, marketing and distributing of this food product, 
when such conditions as these exist. The old method of 
marketing has been anything but perfect, and certainly 
everything but satisfactory to the grower and to the ac¬ 
tual consumer of apples. The grower who has packed 
bis apples and shipped them to the great markets, to 
the commission men, has had a world of experience and 
an exceedingly small amount of profit in his business. 
In many instances the shipper has been defrauded out 
of a part or all of his money; in other cases the com¬ 
mission man has sold at very reasonable prices the fruit 
•shipped to him to some speculator or jobber, and he, in 
turn, has sold it to some other middleman, and by the 
time it reached the consumer the apples which were 
selling on the railroad track or on the docks, in large 
‘■i nters of population, were costing the consumer from 
two to three times the amount of money that the origi¬ 
nal wholesale price represented. There has been little 
improvement in the handling of grower’s apples in the 
urge markets during the past 50 years. Yet we find the 
THK RURAL NEW-YORKER 
California fruit grower, the Florida fruit grower and 
the imported fruit people all using modern up-to-date 
methods for the packing of their fruit. 
The Consumer’s 35-cent Dollar. 
JiCt us look at that 35 cent dollar from the consum¬ 
er’s point here in Vermont. Vermont, 60 years ago, 
was a self-supporting State, and exported corn, oats, 
meal, butter and cheese. Today all these commodities 
are imported. Our population is nearly the same. Our 
farmers buy corn, oats, flour, beef and pork. They sell 
nearly all the calves, some milk and cheese. These 
they cannot give short measure on very well. But 
every year patrons of cheese factories are hauled up 
and fined for watering their milk. The city milk com¬ 
panies are continually testing the milk and docking the 
farmers on the milk check. The farmers sell their 
milk to city companies for three cents a quart, and 
charge home concerns six to eight cents. Potatoes were 
50 cents per bushel in the field last Fall, but few would 
sell them, consequently few working people filled their 
bins with them. All Winter people have been short of 
potatoes because the farmers who have thousands of 
bushels were keeping them for a raise. People even 
sent 100 miles for potatoes and got three bushels for a 
dollar to cut. Now after planting potatoes are 20 to 
25 cents a bushel and no sale at that. Apples were 
plenty last Fall, but held at $1 a bushel while the price 
was 50 cents for hand-picked. Today hundreds are 
dumping rotten apples in most places. The average 
iarrner will not sell his produce for the going price 
and loses even the 35 cent dollar and whose fault is 
:t - _ A. L. B. 
New Jersey Farmers Speak; Strong 
Protest from the State Board. 
“For several years past the State Board of Agricul¬ 
ture, representing the allied agricultural interests of 
the State, has felt that it was absolutely necessary that 
the various departments which have been created since 
the organization of the State Board in 1873, and were 
operating under separate management and control, 
should be consolidated in one department at Trenton, 
which should be under the management of the ablest 
agriculturist that could be secured. 
“The recent outbreak of the foot and mouth disease 
and other diseases in animals, which emphasized the 
lack of authority and facilities to properlv care for 
these destructive diseases, hastened the decision of the 
agricultural interests in favor of a plan that would 
result in the present problems being taken care of 
properly, but that would broaden the scope of the 
present laws and increase the prosperity of the farmers 
and be of benefit to the State. 
. Ht was the universal feeling among all of the organ¬ 
izations comprising the State Board of Agriculture that 
the farmers themselves, who had conserved the inter¬ 
ests of the State in times past, should elect the State 
board and control the appointment of State officers who 
would manage the Department of Agriculture to be 
created by the enactment of the bill. 
“Therefore, the bill which was framed after consul¬ 
tation with the various agricultural interests, and in- 
troduced in the Senate by Senator Gaunt, by request 
of.the executive committee, preserved this form of ap¬ 
pointment. The bill in this shape was passed by both 
branches of the Legislature, and was vetoed by the 
Governor. 
“The bill for the reorganization of the State Board of 
Agriculture was vetoed by the Governor on the ground 
that it was class legislation, that it constituted an at¬ 
tempt or scheme to secure State funds for private in¬ 
terests, and in short that, if enacted into law, it would 
be «“m l °. nStltutl01iaL In vetoi ng the bill he wrote- 
. ll “ s bl11 provides for the establishment of a new 
Mate Board of Agriculture, the members whereof are 
to be elected annually at a convention composed of dele- 
gates. * * * 
‘“The board is given all the powers and duties now 
conferred upon individuals, boards and commissions now 
appointed by or through the Governor. * * *’ 
“The only deduction that can fairly be drawn from 
the veto message, as well as the arguments against the 
bill in the Senate and the Assembly, is that if the Gov¬ 
ernor had been given the power to appoint the mem- 
bers of the State Board of Agriculture, he would have 
signed the bill. Jealous of the patronage of the execu- 
failing to obtain it, the Governor vetoed a 
hi I which worked no material change in the way of 
selecting the State Board of Agriculture, but had the 
gioat merit of consolidating into one department the 
agricultural interests now looked after by fifteen sep¬ 
arate departments or organizations. 
If Governor Fielder in his veto message is right 
then all appropriations to the present State Board of 
Agriculture have been unlawful. No one else has ever 
™ e an.V such suggestion and is it not barely possible 
that where so many, including the present Governor 
have recognized the present State Board of Agriculture 
as a lawful body, that he now is wrong, when as a 
reason for vetoing a bill providing for the reorganiza- 
. n ot all State agricultural interests he says that it 
will be unconstitutional’ if the members of the board 
are elected by those engaged in agricultural pursuits 
rather than appointed by him? 
“Objections are now presented by the Governor which 
did not occur to him when he sat as a Senator or when 
™ Governor he approved appropriations to the present 
State Board of Agriculture, though he has no voice in 
the selection of its members. lie is willing to recog- 
mze as lawful the present board whose members are 
elected by the farmers, but he is unwilling to approve 
a bill which would improve the present State agencies 
tor fostering our agricultural pursuits unless he per¬ 
sonally is given the power to select the members who 
make up the State Board of Agriculture. Does the 
Governor presume that he is better equipped to de¬ 
termine the personnel of those who shall care for the 
ate agricultural interests than are those who are 
daily in contact with such interests and with the men 
engaged in their pursuits?” 
879 
to work and within 90 days disposed of all the Alfalfa 
of the Grangers, amounting to over $12,000 gross, bring¬ 
ing to them a net gain over what they would have re¬ 
ceived from dealers of more than $2,000. The success 
of this effort encouraged the Grange to try its hand on 
other commodities. They filled their members' bins with 
coal for the Winter, at an average saving of $1.50 
per ton, secured for them commercial fertilizers at a sav¬ 
ing of more than $4 per ton. bought their feeds at an av¬ 
erage saving of $3 per ton. besides saving a very con¬ 
siderable amount of money for them on other purchases. 
the savin S on all sides has amounted to about 
$2,500 in the last 90 days. More than this the price 
fixed on Alfalfa became the price which every dealer in 
the community was compelled to pay, so that other far¬ 
mers than the Grangers, received the benefits induced 
by grange action. 
A GOOD ROADS POLICY.—The legislative com¬ 
mittee of the Pennsylvania State Grange has worked out 
a comprehensive good road plan, which it will seek to 
have enacted into law at the next session of the Legisla¬ 
ture. 1. The committee favors the commission form of 
control. This is on the ground that private interests 
are more likely to be considered in the management of a 
great road system than if the work is under the direc¬ 
tion of a commission, and in this case a commission of 
three is proposed. 2. The contracting power is moved 
closer to the scene of operation and is placed under the 
control of a commission of four, three to be elected by 
the people and one by the convention of supervisors. 3. 
A blanket appropriation is proposed for roads, to be dis¬ 
tributed to the counties on a basis of road mileage and 
be divided between the main roads and the township 
roads in _a definite proportion. In Pennsylvania the 
township is the unit. 4. The State department is to es¬ 
tablish a standard of roads which standard must be 
maintained in order to secure the appropriation, and 
proper supervision must be provided. The system is be¬ 
lieved to be economical and practical. 
MILK LEGISLATION IN MASSACHUSETTS.— 
The Grange in Massachusetts had a hard fight on its 
hands when it undertook to defeat certain legislation in¬ 
imical to the farmers’ interests. But it won out. It 
was over the so-called “clean milk bill.” Early in the 
session a bill was introduced which provided that no 
milk should be sold in the commonwealth that was pro¬ 
duced under “unclean or unsanitary” conditions. Offen¬ 
ders against the proposed law would be subjected to a 
heavy money penalty or imprisonment, or both, and no 
right of hearing or right of appeal was given, the word 
of the inspector only being required to condemn the of¬ 
fender. All rested on his opinion. The bill passed both 
houses of the Legislature and went to the Governor. 
1 hen it was the Grange Legislative committee put in its 
heavy work. By an appeal to the members of the Order 
throughout the State letters, telegrams and personal ap¬ 
peals were focused on the Executive and the measure 
was vetoed. For six successive years a similar danger 
has threatened the milk producers of Massachusetts, but 
so far the representatives of the farmers’ interests at 
Boston have been able to thwart such legislation. It 
is another instance wherein the Grange stands not only 
for the welfare of its own members but for that of ail 
farmers as well. , j. w. d. 
Some Grange Matters. 
ai }\HAT GRANGE DID.—For various reasons 
Alfalfa was a drug on the market last Winter in Cen- 
tial New York, and most of the crop remained unsold in 
h ebruary The dealers were offering from $10 to $15 per 
•? n /'aJrvrTx 1 J n tbe mow ' and they were quoting 
it at $22 to $26 to feeders in other places. It was then 
that the 1 ayetteville Grange, of Onondaga County took 
the matter up for its members many of whom were grow¬ 
ers of Alfalfa. A small advertisement was placed in 
some of the farm papers, pressers and inspectors went 
Iowa Fruit Crops. 
A summary of the reports on the condition of the 
fruit crop in Iowa for June is as follows: Apples, 72%; 
P^ars, 37%; Americana plums, 56%; Domestica plums, 
44%; Japanese plums, 51% cherries, 31%; peaches, 
: ro . f l raspberries, 66%, black raspber¬ 
ries, 68%; blackberries, 72%; currants, 65%; goose¬ 
berries, 66%; strawberries, 72% of a full crop. The 
average condition of all fruits is 55%, or 15% lower 
than it was last month. Frosts on the 9th and 17th, 
with cold rains the latter part of May, were not fav¬ 
orable to a good set of fruit. The average condition 
tor all fruits in June for the last 14 years is 57 %>% 
or 214% higher than the estimate for this month. ~ 
State Horticultural Society. wesley greene. Sec. 
Oklahoma Fruit Prospects. 
The prospect for a full crop of all kinds of fruit in 
Oklahoma is perhaps the best we have had for a num¬ 
ber of years. The conditions have been such as to favor 
the best growth and development of both fruit and 
trees this season. The peach crop of the State is esti¬ 
mated at about 2,000 cars and other fruits in propor¬ 
tion. Early peaches are beginning to move at the 
present thne. _ Blackberries are also moving. Quite 
an effort is being made by the railway companies, tlie 
agricultural colleges and some individuals to place the 
fruit on the market, so that it will bring the best 
possible price. It is hoped that the returns will be such 
that it will give an impetus to fruit growing in this 
State in the future. The one great trouble with the 
present crop is that such a large amount of fruit was 
set and so little of it was properly thinned that it is 
quite likely that it will be rather small. 
Oklahoma Station. Leonard g. iierrox. 
Kansas Fruit Prospects. 
Reports received by the Kansas State Horticultural 
Society indicate the prospects for the Kansas fruit crop 
to be as follows. For the State as compared with the 
-June reports for the past two years. 
Apple . 
Pear . ^ 
Peach .’ * ’" fji 
Blum . (jo 
Cherry . (50 
Grape . £0 
Strawberry . 74 
Raspberry .’ 09 
Blackberry . 70 
Apricot . . 66 
Reports on garden vegetables indicate that in spite 
ot shght damage by cutworms, all classes of vegetables 
will be plentiful. 
Peaches in the northeast part of the State were se¬ 
verely injured by the low temperature of December 
probab y due to the fact that there had been more 
rainfall m that section than in the central and south¬ 
ern part of the State. All other classes of fruit gave 
a very full bloom, but the continuous rains all over the 
State during blooming period cut down the average 
considerable. The quality of fruit will probably be 
above the average of the past few years, as considerable 
interest has been shown in spraying, as the result of 
the work of the county agents and the Agricultural 
t ollege. Should the conditions remain favorable, it 
means that Kansas will have approximately 3,500,000 
bushels of apples. The largest crop in the last 10 
years was that of 1912 when 4,827,789 was reported. 
J. L. pelitam, Secretary. 
1915. 
1914. 
1913. 
61 
53 
53 
50 
46 
40 
61 
39 
28 
60 
42 
41 
60 
58 
64 
80 
68 
79 
74 
53 
70 
69 
69 
70 
70 
67 
69 
66 
