The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1904-03-15

The Missouri Pippln is great bear
er-bears too full-and yet a Missouri
Pippin tree eight or ten years old
will not bear half as many apples as
Ben Davis of the same age. The
reason for this is very plain. The lat
| ter is an enormous grower and has
twice the capacity, at the same age,
of the former. The Jonathan is an an
nual bearer, but the tree is of slow
growth and at ten years of age looks
like a pigmy beside the giant Ben
Davis 1t is we'll known that no apple
sells as well as the Esopus, commonly
known as the Spitzenburg, and yet
it is a settled fact that in most Sec
lions it is utterly Improbable. We
sometimes read in the papers about
some one selling his Spitz at very
| high price, and we are apt to think
that that man has made big money in
raising that variety. Sometimes that
may be true, but often the reverse is
| true. A man came to me last fall to
know what he could get for his Spitzen-
| burgs. [ told him what was offered.
| Then I asked him how many trees
| he had and how many boxes they
would run to the tree and found that
| they would not average two boxes to
the tree on nine-year-old trees. 1t is
safe to say that Ben Davis trees the
same age would have yielded him more
than ten boxes each. A Chicago buy
err was in my orchard last fall looking
for Spitz and yet he admitted that a
man could make more money raising
Bens at so cents per box than the SpitZ
at $3.50 per box.
| =
We may discard the cheaper apples
and grow the higher priced ones in
their place, but if they are grown in
as great abundance as the others the
price will come down and nothing will
be gained except in the matter of quail
ity But We will never grow fancy ap-
pies in as great abundance as we now
grow the Ben Davis. II we drive the
poorer apples out of the markets we
will simply curtail the use of this
best of all fruits. This is not to be
desired, and, if accomplished, will
work great injury to the apple indus
try. The use of apples among the
non producing class has increased a
thousand fold in the last hundred
years. This has been done by the pro-
duction of cheap apples. The masses
of the people in the cities are not yet
half supplied with apples. This never
will be accomplished by the produc-
ton of fancy fruit that sells very
high. Some growers in Hood River,
Oregon, sold their Spitzenburgs last
fall at So per box. They were shipped
to New York and put in cold storage.
One of the growers of this fruit told
me in Portland in January that he bad
| just learned that these apples were
selling at wholesale at $3.50 per box.
Think of what these apples must cost
the consumer by the time they reach
him through the retailer!
No one but men of wealth can af-
| ford apples at such prices. The COM
mon people must do without apples
if such prices are to prevail. This
would so restrict the use of apples that
even fancy fruit would come down.
What the apple industry needs is a
constant widening of the use of such
fruit But to do this we must furnish
the masses with cheap apples. Apples
today are higher in the retail markets
of Seattle than oranges are. A good,
small, sweet orange can be bought on
tha streets for 10 cantS ner dozen