St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-20
A Plan to Bring Washington
Products to the Mime
sofa Market.
Reduced Freight Rates Over
the Northern Pacific to
Go in Force.
More Rigorous Methods to Be
Introduced in the Boiler
Inspection.
First Camp Of Sons Of Vet
Grams Celebrates It's An
niversapy.

for some time by the officials of the
Northern Pacific railway concerning
the feasibility of increasing the fruit
trade of Washington and Oregon so that
Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas and Min
nesOta may be able to secure fresh
fruits to good advantage during the
comming seasons. This movement has
just taken definite shape, and in re-
spouse to an inquiry yesterday General
Freight Agent 81. Moore, OF the North
ern Pacific, said:
I'VE propose TO utilize our box cars
and refrigerator cars. and reduce the
rates Gu green fruits from the Walla
Walla, Upper Snake river and Palouse
country to Montana and the farming
districts of Dakota, and to handle the
fruit with dispatch, and give the min
ers, ranchmen and farmers fruit fresh
from the orchard. We will also i'm
prove the service and reduce the rates
from the Yakima and Walia WalIa val
leys to the Pacific coast cities"
Washington and Oregon grow as fine
fruit as any district-SOme say their
dears, plums and STRAWBERRIES are the
finest in the world-yet they have la
bored under the disadvantage of being
comparatively new i'll the business.
Many of their fruit raiSers are not alive
to the requirements of selecting, hand
ling and packing for shipment; fact
that was evident from some of the
stock received in this city dur
ing the past season. While the
fruit was large and of excellent flavor.
it was not placed before the wholesale
buyers in as attractive a style as that
which came from California. When the
Italian vendors
Discovered Its Quality,
however. the sales increased rapidly
These Italians wrap the pears and
plumS i'll gay-colOred tissue paper, max
ing them attractive to the eye and pre-
serving them from diScoloration and
bruiSing. A few lectures ON handling,
selecting and packing their stock would
be of great value to the Western fruit
men. Such men as John S. Robertson
and George w. Martin, produce COM
mission men, speak highly of the Wash
ington and Oregon fruits, but complain
of the way they are packed. In ship
ping, the boxes should be separated
from each other by lathS or strips of
wood, so that ventilation may be freer.
In using the ventilated refrigerator
car the fruit can be shipped long dis
tanceS to points such as are indicated in
Mr.. Moore's statement. Itappears from
experience that refrigerator cars have
been very desirable for loag shipments,
especially IN this Northern district.
Box cars can, of course, be used for
short shipments where the fruit IS not
likely to spoil. In California, where the
trade has assumed gigantic proportions,
train after train of fruit cars can be
seen upon the roads in the shipping
season. With the growth of the Wash
ington and Oregon trade large numbers
of fruit cars will undoubtedly be called
into service on the Northern roads.
California has had the advantage
of using the ocean boats from San Fran
cisco to the Northern cities, 600 to 800
miles, at nominal rates, and has been
able to obtain quite foothold in the
fruit trade of Portland, Tacoma, Seattle
and such places. With the proposed
action OF the Northern Pacific in force
those cities will be able to patronize the
producers of their own states. and. at
the same time, have fresher and better
products for their tables. The reduc-
ton in freight rates is to apply on small
quantities as well as on carload lots.
The principal fruit-growing valleys
are the Walla Walla, PalouSe, Yakima,
Chehalis, Whlippa. upper Snake river
and Umatilla, in Washington. and the
Dalles and other points in Oregon. 1t
is likely that the people of Spokane,
kootenai. Helena and Bismarck would
prefer the Northern fruits to those from
San Francisco. which are largely hand
led by Chinese.
Fruit Going to Waste.
A ST. Paul fruit dealer who returned
from the state Of Washington last fall
said yesterday: ut was shame to see
so much elegant fruit lying on the
Ground and UOiDo fO tyactQ N WaShi1,
ton state. Most of the growers Ill the
eastern part of the fruit districts saw
little chance to market these products.
There were 10 buyers in the towns, and
after storing supply for family use
and drying all they could. the rest went
to rot. Such beautiful, luscious pears
and peacheS-I never saw any better
and we could scarcely put our feet down
in the pear orchards without stepping
on pears. Apples were lost in the same
way. At one house we found
side show-an old Indian making
cider. He selected only the best of the
apples for tue purpose, and the boss of
the place said that every nook was full
of fruit, most of it dried, and that the
Indian couldn't press one-tenth OF the
apples that were available for cider.
The hogs would eat few of them and
the rest would go to the mischief. Trees
of all kinds and in all directions were
propped up every Imaginable way to
prevent the harvest from breaking down
the branches. Talk about apples. They
have early apples and winter apples, as
nice as ever you saw. The winter
apples would keep we'll in Min
nesota, but we're too far East
red and black raspberries, whortleber-
ries and the largest and most delicious
strawberries. The latter are of pale
pink color and just melt IN your mouth.
The fruits tempt man to live over
there, but the people are too slow.
Splendid grapes of all kinds grow in
abundance; alsoplums. prunes, q uinceS,
apricots, cherries and blackberrieS. At
Chehalis we visited Sheriff Lesh and
went through his great orchards, which
adjoin the city. He was waiting anx-
iously for cider mill to arrive and
hoped to save part of his apple crop
from going to loss. From one three
year-old peach tree he had sold $50
worth of fruit 70 Chehalis dealers. At
the next ranch, near ChehaliS, we en-
joyed a delicious native-grown water
melon of large size, aud saw vineyards
that astonished US. The abundance and
fine quality of the fruits was quite as
remarkable at Centralia, and in fact
all through the Yakima valley. Some
of the ranchmen wished that their Or
chards of thirty to fifty acres were
smaller, so that they could give them
better attention and handle the fruit
products to better advantage. If East
ern buyers are in next season to take
their surplus stock it will be great
boon for them. even if they only get
few cents a basket for the peaches and
plums."