The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1904-09-01

the growers at Gashland, Mo-, have said
that after paying for picking and pack.
age, freight charges, etc, their crop did
not ret them much over 25 cents per
crate for the latter part of the reason.
Assuming that their cost Of picking
and crates were the same as ours, mas
much as they do not pack their berries,
I would mean that the returns were
rs cents to the grower. The 20 cent?
freight charges on our berries, if no.
body realized any more for their berries
than they did, this rs cents would
have been consumed in transportation
charges and would have netted the
grower not one cent.
"The editor in this same letter makes
the following statement: we would
say in this connection that we think
there Is growing belief among those
acquainted with the strawberry situa-
ton in Southern Missouri that the
acreage of Strawberries has been rather
too large, or rather that individual
growers have more acres than they can
attend to, and the tendency now is to
have each planter decrease his acreage
until it reaches point where he can
give 1t the proper attention,
"H'rom a letter received from Grand
Forks, listen to the following: We have
been obliged to grant allowances on
Strawberries this year when allowances
would not have been necessary if con
ditions had been different. 1t has been
hard work to get our jobbers to con-
tinue handling Hood River berries.
Southern berries have been so very
cheap that jobbers could make better
profits on the Southern fruits than on
yours. This has made them over-ex-
acting on allowances and made the
business generally difficult.
"From Cheyenne; We wired you
this morning that we would not advise
shipping any more here. Utah ship
pers are flooding every little town in
our territory with strawberries, and as
the express agents are selling most OF
them for express charges, We find it
awful hard work to move Hood Rivers
81 could quote from a number OF
other letters OF similar nature, but trust
the above are sufficient to convince any
body that nearly every market was
crowded and that nearly every district
suffered worse than Hood River; and
had ii not been for the fact that our
berry is the best grown in the world,
and that the majority Of our pc pie Gull
their berries properly, and that we put
them up attractively by facing the
boxes, we would have been compelled
TO accept about the same price as other
districts received, and that means any
old price down TO 10 cents per crate. "
Taking up the cost # marketing, for
the benefit Of great many people who
inclose cards in their boxes and receive
replies stating that they paid so much
for the crate of berries, Mr. Shepard
went on to explain: ut costs rs cents
freight to most of our distributing CEN
ters and 10 cents brokerage. The COM
mission house makes 25 cents per crate,
and II the berries are shipped out to
some other town, there is 25 cents ex-
pressage, and the retailer usually takes
so conts per crate, making total cost
Of straight marketing of $l,S5. This
would mean il the grower was returned
$3.50 per crate, that the berries sold at
1886 per crate. In many cases an adj
ditional expense is incurred by berries
being sold through commission houses,
whore the population is 25,O00 or so,
making an extra expense OF 25 cents per
crate; and frequently berries are sent
to towns so remote that the expressage
IL 30 cents per crate, which would make
another % cents, consequently crate
which sold to the consumer for $4.l0
would net back but $l50. OF course,
some OF these charges could be cut off
we're our business sufficiently large in
these small towns to employ repre-
sentative on a salary, but usually the
amount of business is not large enough
to enable us to do this, and to do SO
would incur greater expense than the
present system.
'The policy OF the Union this year
was to have each grower receive his
proportion of the shipment sold to the
high price markets and take his share
on the low price markets in proportion
to the number OF crates he shipped as
compared with the entire number ship
ped on single day. Upon this system
growers in all cases would receive the
same treatment.
"From what l have told you, it would
seem, in order that growers should get
the best results, that each one should
aim TO grow no more berries than he
can take care of; and in order to get the
best prices for his berries, he must put
up good pack and thoroughly Gull his
berries, There is always market for
fancy fruit, and il Hood River growers
do not put up fancy fruit, they will be
compelled to accept ordinary prices"