The San Francisco call., 1897-06-16
MARKETING FRUIT.

The dispatches of Monday announce
! that the unreasonable weather in New
| York last week had an extremely bad ef
| lect on the fruit market, and that ali
produce of the kind sold so slowly that
most of it spoiled before it could be mar.
keted. There were sold in that city
twenty-six carloads of California fruit, as
against eighteen carloads during the cor
responding week OF last year, but the re-
turns were so ruinously low that it is
doubtful if the shippers made expenses,
a'uch less profits.
The fact that the unreasonable weather
is supposed to be the cause of the low
prices offered during the week affords
some ground for expectation of better
things TO come. When the summer SETS
in with its usual warmth in the East,
there will be larger demand for fruit,
and cores spondingly better prices for
shippers. With this encouragement it is
likely that fresh fruit shipments will go
forward briskly for the rest of the sum-
mer, and each succeeding week may show
shipments as much larger than those of
the corresponding period of 1896 as were
those of last week.
The improved transportation facilities
and the enlarged yield of our orchards
have increased the supply of fresh fruit
that we send East, but tie demand of that
market has not increased at an equal
rate. 1t is therefore question: bic W he her
even the return OF normal summer
weather will make the net income of the
larger shipments equal to the net returns
OF former years. III the market continues
overstocked as at present it will be i'm
peratiye upon our fruit producers to see k
either another market or else supply the
present market with fruit in a different
form.
The Californian fruit grower is con-
fronted by serious handicap in selling
fresh fruit. The orchards of the gulf
States have communication b. wafer aud
more rapid and cheaper rail communica-
ton with the Dig cities of the East than
have those of California. These disad-
vantages we cannot hope TO overcome
Even the superiority of our fruit is hardly
sufficient 10 counterbalance the disad-
vantages under winch it is shipped, and
if there is anything like an overstocked
market we suffer from the com petition Of
our better-placed rivals.
This condition of affairs does not neces.
sarily entail loss upon California as a
fruit-producing State On the contrary,
1t may have the effect of benefiting the
wealth by forcing our people 10
send East not raw fruit but preserved
fruit. There afe much larger profits to
be made by the SAFE of preserved cherries
and apricots than by their sale in any
other way. The preserving, moreover
should not be confined TO the simp.e pro-
cess of canning, but should include the
finest jellies and delicacies which can be
formed from the products of our orchards
The market for fine fruit preserves has
never been Overstocked. Ev,n in Cali
fornia we import such preserves. The
shelves of our groceries are loaded with
delicacies imported from Europe, the raw
material OF which may have been grown
in the United States. and possibly in Cali
fornis. When we have become convinced
that there is no profit in shipping fresh
cherries to New York We may pay more
attention TO preserving them q home, and
out of the increased prices and the surer
market for that class of goods find a re-
ward more than sufficient TO repay US for
the losses which force US 10 become a
manufacturing community in spite of
ourselves.