The record-union., 1894-05-05
PROSPECTS OF THE FRUIT GROWERS.
This Year May ReCompense Them For
Past Losses.
Shippers Ideas AS to the Outlook For
the Season. In View Of the
Rassern Shortage.

points which have been gathered from
shippers viii. therefore. be Of interest.
A RECORD UNION reporter called at the
Office OF Porter Brothers Company, seek
ing information touching on the pros
poets, present and prospective, for the
crop of California fruit for the season OF
1894. He found Nate Salisbury, Vice.
President of the company. well posted on
the situation, and In reply to question
as to the prospects for California fruit for
the present season and the outlook for
crop, Mr.. Salisbury stated that he had
been in the fruit districts for the past five
weeks, visiting nearly every fruit section
in the State, and that prospects are certain
ly fiattering for a large crop in many sec
tions, particularly in those favored with
plenty of water. The Sacramento River
crop of pears promises to be heavy; april
cots, a good full crop; peaches, good
crop; plums are dropping oonsloera,1IIy.
and on the whole the plum crop Will be
lighter than last season on the Saora-
inento River. Many contracts have been
made on the Sacramento 6iVer by
Eastern dealers for shipment East, and
liberal prices have been paid for pears
and plumS.
In Vacavilla and Winters districts,
crop; French prunes, a light crop; Bart
lett pears, light. Suisun, heavy crop OF
Bartlett pears good crop of peaches and
apricots, and light crop OF shipping
plums.
In Napa, Sonoma and Santa Rosa dis
tricts. the cherry crop is fair; the French
prune crop medium; pears and peaches
heavy crop. In San Lorenzo, San Leandro
and Haywards districts, the cherry crop
is good; poor crop good; French prunes,
medium, and shipping plums. fair crop.
At San Jose. peach and apricot crops are
good; pear crop fair, and the cherry crop
good; French prune5 are reported as
dropping very badly and they do not an
ticipate over half crop.
Newcastle, Penryn and Auburn dis
tricts have prospects for fine crop OF
peaches good crop OF cherries and fair
crop of plums.
MarysYiIle, Gridley, Biggs and Chico,
good crop of peaches and apricots and
fair crop OF pears and plums. The report
from Chico is that the cherry crop has
been damaged by hail.
Fresno, Tulare and Bakersfield have
every prospect Of good crop of all kinds
of fruit. In the Santa Barbara and Ven
tura sections the prospects are for a fair
crop of apricots, but as they have had
only about seven inches of rainfall it is
believed fruit will be very small.
From present indications the grape
crop will be good, and with a full crop of
all varieties of fruit in California, and Sc
rious damage to the Eastern fruit crop,
he believes that. California will realize
good fair prices and be able to market
large proportion of this seasons crop in
the Eastern markets in green state.
Mr.. Salisbury further says: "Canners
at the present time are quiet, and l have
heard of but few contracts being made for
canning purposes, but feel confident that
ha0 vii cxfo a1 " III
that there will be big demand for Cali
fornia fruit, not only for Eastern ship
ments, but for canning purposes and dry
ing.
Reports are not exaggerated regarding
damage to Eastern fruit crop by frost.
Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland
have suffered worse than any other fruit
producing section, and the crop of peaches
in Delaware and New Jersey, it is esti-
mated, will fall short fully 75 per cent.
Baltimore Gamers have advanced their
prices on canned peaches fully 65 per
cent, while California Gamers who were
carrying heavy stocks of canned fruits in
warehouses, both on this coast and
throughout the Eastern cities, have been
able to dispose ofs all of their surplus
within the last thirty days at satisfactory
prices, and am of the opinion that when
the season opens for California canned
and dried fruit the Eastern markets will
be well cleaned up, and all surplus stock
held on this coast will have found mar
ket and gone into consumption, and pros
poets are certainly fiattering for the mar
keting of the present fruit crop of Cali
fornia at good fair value.
"We do not anticipate extra high prices,
but predict a steady market and good
demand throughout all of the Eastern
States at fair prices for California fruit,
green, canned and dried.
"Prunes, raisins. dried peaches and
apricots are well cleaned up, and all Of
these goods show sharp advance within
the past thirty days.
1.-The railroad companies, I believe. are
alive to the situation, and have agreed to
give fast time in ventilated cars at the
slow-freight rate of 81 25 per hundred
pounds to Chicago, and promise to put on
schedule train, making the time be-
tween Sacramento and Chicago in l2O
hours, thus enabling us to sell fruit
shipped by freight train in ventilated cars
on the morning of the sixth day in Chi
cago. Fruit shipped in refrigerator cars
Will be delivered in Chicago in 16S hours.
or seven days from the time the car leaves
Sacramento. With fast-train service,
low freight rates and good demand for
the California fruits East, results should
certainly be satisfactory to the grower.
New York, Boston, Philadelphia,
Washington, and in fact all large Eastern
cities, will have to draw their supply of
peaches from California. and California
fruit will be more largely distributed this
season thsn ever BEFORE"
Gregory Bros. stated that the outlook
for the growers was excellent. There
will be large shortage in the East, es-
pecially on peaches. Bartlett pears will
bring good prices. and as California will
have monopoly Of apricots, they will
bring large prices, and an orchard of
them will be mine this season. Still,
while prices realized will be good, it is
not at all sure that fancy prices will be
secured, the financial stringency at the
East serving as balance 70 keep down
prices, as many poor people who ordi
narily buy California fruits will not be
able to do so this year. The early fruits
will bring good prices.
The manager of the National Fruit
Company stated that the failure of the
peach crop on the peninsula, in Delaware
and Maryland, is almost complete, and
will open large market for California
peaches. Bartlett pears will also meet
with good sale. The prospects for the
fruit-growers doing well, therefore, are
excellent.
The company has reports from twenty
seven agencies in the various large cities
in the East, and they are all encouraging.
Three of them are auction marts, and
they will probably do double the busi-
ness this year that they did last. Early
strawberries were destroyed in Arkansas
and the California shippers will get the
benefit OF it.
The manager of the Earl Fruit Com