Morning journal and courier., 1881-03-09
High Priced Fruit.
What Early San Franciscans Paid for
 Apples and Peaches.

1 What Early San Franciscans Paid for l Apples and Peaches.
 From the Virginia City CNevl Enterprise.l 1 For the following items relative to the l first introduction and sale of fruits in Cali fornia we are indebted to MT. John Piper, l the well known theatrical manager of this l city, who was the first fruit dealer In San Francisco and who came to that city from | New York in the steamer Oregon in the month of April, 1S53 Mir. Piper says the first box of apples of Pacific coast production | which reached San Francisco came in the 1 same year from the rancho of Lewis Allen and Mir. Mead in the vicinity of Portland, Ore the owners of the same having crossed
 the plains in 1916 and having brought fruit | trees with them.
 Mr. Piper purchased the first lot from the agent, MT. King, for $2.5O per pound, and retailed the same from $1 to $4 and even S5 apiece. The next steamer, the Columbia, brought another box, for which MT. Piper offered the same price, which was declined. He finally secured the lot for $1.124 each
 and sold them again to two lads named Keel ing (now in the gunsmith business in San Francisco) for $1.3T4 apiece, who in turn
 peddled them out for s to $5 apiece. During the winter of 1853-54 MT. Piper | and MT. Andrews, who were then engaged l in the hardware business on Davis street, or
 dered 1000 or 5 1000 pounds of apples shipped 1 from New York city to San Francisco by steamer paying fifty cents per pound for l freight. The apples were packed in sawdust in closed tin cans. Says our informant; ''The apples when first opened had delicl- ous flavor, but turned black in half an hour afterwards from the effect of the heat during the twenty days voyage. MT. Piper adopted suggestion from some one to preserve the apples by picking them in salt water, and sold them pickled for fifty cents apiece, at
 which price they were readily disposed of. The fruit dealer noticed, however, that GUS toners, after taking one bite would generally throw away the apple in the plaza Ports mouth square) He was afterwards advised to bake the pickled apples by way of variety, and actually sold several hundred dollars
 worth baked for fifty cents apiece.
 The first lot of peaches which reached San Francisco, 1854, came from Mir. Hills ranche
 at Napa, and sold as high as $50 per dozen, retail. Cherries of Oregon growth were in- troduced the same year. MT. Piper pur- chased the first lot for $2.50 per pound. Putting them in a clothes-basket he retailed
 them on the street for twenty-five cents apiece, and afterwards sold them in his store for $5 per pound.
 Strawberries arrived,from Alameda in 1864 5, and cost $4 pound wholesale, and heaped up in French soup bowls, holding half pound each, were retalled for $5 per bowl. Pears, which came into market about the same time, retailed at high figure. MT. Piper remembers getting $11 for single pear The first lot of grapes which came from Los Angeles sold at wholesale as high as twenty-five cents per pound. In looo, Mir. Piper bought ;, 1000 boxes on the steamer Senator, just arrived in San Francisco, and took them to Sacremento and Marysvllle, where he was compelled to dispose of them for less than the freight charges, the hot weather having nearly ruined the entire lot On the return trip cargo of watermelons, obtained from rancher in Sacramento for twenty-five cents apiece, were sold in San Francisco at prices ranging as high as $1. Oranges, which were first brought by steam CT from San Juan, the terminus of the route of the Nicarauga steamers in 1854, brought $9O per 1,OOO wholesale. Lines brought up from Acapulco were worth $6O per $1, 900 pine apples, $40 per $1 ,00o; bananas, $25 bunch.