Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-01-21
OUR FARMERS.
SELLING APPLES

has apples on hand now can turn them
into money at very liberal rates.
It was not always thus. We can all
of us remember as far back as last
September.
At that time there were wise men in
the land who said that apples were
not worth more than fifty or seventy
five cents a barrel. Some folks
seemed to think that at that price the
growers ought to furnish the barrel
also, and give a chrome with each
purchase.
The wise men said that the apple
crop was larger than in 1896, and that
prices would be lower; and many
growers, frightened by the recollec-
ton Of that bad year Of plenty, took
what they could get for the fruit and
let it 60 to the first buyer.
The Vermont experiment station
regis tered strenuous protest against
this policy of hasty selling at the time,
and, through the newspapers and by
private correspondence, did all in its
power to help the growers to get
better prices. A few growers held
their apples, but the majority sold >
many of them needlessly soon. Never
theless apples have gone up steadily
and strongly in price, and at the pres
ent time are selling almost at the top
figure known for this time Of year.
Many lots sold before the end OF No
vember at 50. so to So a barrel; and
prices as high as 1915 to 81 a barrel
in considerable lots have reported for
the holiday market. Fancy apples
have sold as high as So a barrel and
even higher. Those who have apples
still in good condition may expect to
realize handsome figures.
| In speaking of the stand which the
| experiment station has taken in the
matter of this years apple market, the
director says that it should be dis
tinctly understood that the station
does not pretend to be bureau of
statistics nor prophet of prices 1t
is not organized with any such pur-
pose in view. But in the case of this
years apple crop it was so perfectly
evident to anyone who could see the
! situation that prices were abnormally
| low, that no stasticalinquiry was need
ed to predict the course Of the mar
ket Prices were bound to go up.
The indsputable facts underlying the
situation were pointed out by the
lar sent to the papers of Vermont and
vicinity on October Is, and were so
convincing in themselves that they
did not need any official authority to
add to their cogency. The wonder is
that anyone, after having these facts
pointed out, could still have sold good
apples at dollar a busheI or less.
Evidently, in some cases, the apple
buyers were believed in preference to
a disinterested party like the expert
ment STATEN.
The high prices which apples are
bringing at present, compared with the
low prices which they were bringing
at picking time, has plain moral for
the apple grower. 1t is that apples
should be held as late as they will
keep well. And Vermont apples are
specially good keepers. January,
February and March are the best
months in which to sell; and the man
who is compelled to sell from the
trees or from the orchard is always
more or less at the mercy OF the
buyers who throng the country in the
fall. In order to hold apples success
fully it is necessary to have some
sort of storage house; but very SIM
pie affair Will do the work if it is
rightly planned and intelligently man
aged. This is another point often
emphasized by the Vermont expert
ment station in it's various publica-
tions; and more or less explicit direc-
lions have been published for making
such storage houses.