The St. Johns herald., 1900-03-03
PLENTY OF APPLES.
This Years Crop Nearly Twice as
 Large as That of 1898
Distribution of the Crop Between the Short states-HoyV the Fruit Is Handled in
 Chicago.

The apple crop this year is twice as large as that of 1898, according to South Water street apple kings. Even then 1t is but 60 per cent. of full crop and is not 10 be compared with the immense crop of 1896, when apples sold as low as 75 cents barrel and were so cheap that no money could be made on them by either grower or handler. The quality this year is also superior to that of 1898, with prices in general lower. New York apples are higher than a year ago, but that is due to the exceptionally fine quality of this seasons New York fruit.
 The distribution of the crop varies, as it does every year. New York has about 40 per cent. of crop, Michigan 50 per cent. of crop, mostly of No. 2 apples. TheNew England crop is light. Last year the west had none. This season Indiana has larger yield than for ten years past and the piles of apples on the eeRar floor are bigger than for a long time. Ohio and Iowa did fairly we'll. Illinois has fair crop of mediums. Mis- souri's yield is small and of poor quaI- ity. Wisconsin and Minnesota are buy CTS. California did well, as did Canada, which has about 60 per cent of crop.
 The Pacific coast is coming up in ap- pie production. It is not much of a fac tor this year, however, on account of the quantity of fruit raised in the mid dle west and east. In few years it will be of greater importance, although even now it is of importance in case of shortage over the rest of the country.
 This year the middle, west and east are exchanging fruit in q kind of apple reciprocity. New York is swapping her famous greenings, Baldwins, russets, Grimes golden and spys for western Jonathans, wine saps and Ben Davis, especially the latter.
 The apple picking season is now over and car loads of apples are coming into Chicago for cold storage. Only the best handepiched apples will stand cold stor- age for any leDgtk' of time. Chicago handles about 30 per cent. of the eggs in the country, and at least 20 per cent. of its apples. It would handle a larger percentage of the latter were it not for the number of cold storage plants con structed throughout the fruit districts in New York state.
 The common practice of large South Water street apple men buying apples varies in different sections. In New York most of tiie apples purchased by them are bought by the barrel, being picked by the grower but packed in the orchard by the commission firms own packers. A few firms have as many as goo men in their employ during the four to six weeks packing season. But New York fruit farmers are old hands at the business, and many of them pack their own fruit, either selling it to ap- pie firms representatives or consigning 1t themselves to commission-houses. In Illinois more apples are bought on the trees. Occasionally speculative in- Sestcrs buy the prospective crops of orchards in bloom.
 In Chicago three or four South Water street houses handle the fruit in car lots, as well as in lesser quantity, and to them the minor commission men go for part of their stock. Firms sandwiched between these two extremes in the vol tune of their business buy outright over the country and receive commission on lesser scale than the eleaders.-Chicapo Times-Herald.