The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-02
BERRIES NIIL STAY H|GH
NO CHANCE FOR REDUCTION IN
PRICE OF RIPE STRAW
BERRIES
OTHER FRUITS TO BE CHEAP
Crops in California, Southern States
and Washington Promise EnOr-
nous Yields and Output
Will Ee Immense.

To those by whom the luscious straw
berry is esteemed as one of the daint.est
delicacieS of the season, may come as
rather a painful shock the information
that the present high quotations are IN
no danger of being reduced. Ruling Zig
ures just now are from $2.25 to $50 Ter
crate, and at these figures the available
supply from the South is about exhausted.
The homegrown product will begin to
come in this week. and though the crop
is reported to- be fair, leading wholesale
men are convinced that berries Will
MAINTAIN the prices at which they are be-
ing offered now. The figures quoted
above are, as every housewife will re-
member, about 81 per crate higher than
the customary pr ces for this time Of
the year. But the exhaustion of the in
ported article and the absence of COM
petition for the home product will con-
spire to keep prices stiff.
The lovers of the savory shoTtcake or
of the raw berries served in cream W Il
therefore have to reconc lie themselves .
paying the high rates which seems to
have prevailed since the season COM
menced. A lead ng wholesale dealer re-
marked yesterday that a great many peo-
pie were holding off and waiting for the
slump which in past seasons mas been
the rule, but he was certain they We're
doomed to disappointment. So far as the
outlook is better than it mas ..een for
years. Cal form a, the Southern states
and Washington all report untNampIed
crops. and in the major ty of cases the
season is too far advanced for any dan
ger from frost. So far as water is con-
cerned, artificial irrigation supplies any
defc enc3es of nature, and enormous
yields of cherries, apricots and peaches
may be looked for.
The season for cherries has already
opened in Minneapolis several car lots
Of the choicest early pichings having ar
rived there. st. Paul, however is no
toriously poor fruit market, md the
only cherries offered for sale here have
been purchased from the MIL City
jobbers.
Peaches and aprlcots will be sold at
ruling price of about 50 a crate while
cherries may be purchased for from 81
to Sl.5G per box The regular orange sea-
son is over, but the late Valencias have
just commenced to arrive, and are be-
ing offered to retail customers at 50 to
IS Per crate
In Washington, the home of gigantic
trees and proportionateIy large species
OF fruits, the prospects were never bet
ter than they are just now In fact the
outlook so good that the Northern Pa
CHIC "a lroad has made ARRANGEMENTS tn
put several extra refrigerator cars On
the service when the shipping season
commences in July.
me only great fruit center in the
United States where the PROSPECTS are
not quite up to the average is the Mia, 90
"a valley where the presence of the scale
is making the growers apprehens.ye of
the yield u
reviewing the situation from eve~v
Standpoint, there seems to be I.ttle doubt
mat the present will be one of the hest
that the public of ST. Paul has experie
enced for several years.