Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-08-21
The Apple Industry.

New Mexico may be as famous for
apples, some day, as California is for
oranges. The quality of the fruit grown
in the territory warrants the predic-
ton. The best apples in the world will
not surpass those produced in various
parts of New Mexico. San Juan county
has long been known principally for
| the fine apples grown there. Chaves
county, though not so early known as
an apple region, bids fair to be the first
to make the territory noted as an apple
country among eastern buyers.
In the latter county for eighteen years
| past small orchards, the largest but
three acres, have yielded enormously,
and often netted an average Of $500 per
acre in one year to the owners This
excessive profit was due to scarcity Of
fruit in a newly settled country. The
u%nvarying success of small orchards
finally led to the planting of one of 500
acres, which will produce fairly well
this year, the trees having now reached
the productive point. Of course, a local
market is not to be relied upon for the
product of so large an orchard, but the
fruit will sell readily in Texas and
wherever it goes.
To attain the best results, secure the
greatest prices by marketing at oppor-
tune times, a cold storage warehouse
will soon be needed. This will prevent
the fruit rotting, and owners will not be
compelled to sell when prices are low
1t is less than nine years since an or
chardist in Kansas established a cold
storage company to handle fruit, the
first warehouse being built for 5000
barrels of apples. Other plants have
since been built. The improved condi-
tions have stimulated the apple indus-
try so that there are now ID, 900, 900 ap-
pie trees in Kansas alone, which will
be mature within five years Should
these trees yield but one barrel of ap-
pies each per annum, to sell at 81 per
barrel, the income will be SIS, 000, 900. The
largest Kansas orchards have 800 acres,
two of them, so that excepting these
and one of 1,400 acres in Missouri, the
Pecos valley orchard has no superior
in size. ...
The apple yield of the Missouri valley
from Omaha to Kansas City is already
enormous, n firm packing 100, 1000 bar
rels annually for shipment to every
state in the Union and to England. But
the cold storage system prevents the
fruit Cutting the market, and the in
dustry pays every year, to some extent,
although the crops are not so uniform
weather has never affected the yield.
Only two years ago one man near
L~eavenworth received 50, 200 from a ten
acre apple orchard. This year IN or
chardist in Missouri has sold a crop
from ten acres for 50, 700. While this
does not equal the record of 81, 200 from
a three-acre orchard at Roswell, the
price Is more significant, because 1t
gauges the big market correctly.
The success of the big orchard in
Chaves county and the establishment
Of cold storage may result in an enor-
nous income to that county within flve
years. With better transportation ia |
~cilities San Juan county will have the
same experience. Cold storage to pre-
serve the fruit will enable it to be mar
keted at any time Of the year. As the
apple stands shipment, the world is a
market. Prices of apples are growing
better. In the last fifteen years they
have averaged 80 1-S per cent higher,
according to trade records, than in the
preceding fifteen years. !