The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1906-08-02
THE APPLE CROP
OF CALIFORNIA

The Pajaro valley is at present the
only important shipping point for ap-
pies in California. A few other sec,
tions, such as Sonoma and Sebasto-
pol, noted for early Gravensteins, the
Santa Clara valley, and places IN
Humboldt AMI Lake counties and In
the Sierras, are local shippers to San
Francisco, and in the southern part
of the state, Arroyo Grande, Lompac
valley and the Julian district are
tributary to Los Angeles. None OF
these minor points now produce
sufficient apples of export trade.
The output of the valley In 1905 was
5000 carlods of ID tons each. The
crop this year will be about the same.
In the course Of few years the out
put will largely increase as not one
half of the orchards are yet bearing.
The Pajaro valley rests Its reputa-
tion principally on two varieties OF
yellow apples, the Bellflower and New
town Pippin, although other varieties
are raised
Apples have been raised commerce
tally In the Pajaro valley for the last
twenty years. The business was small
until 1896, when Newtowns we're first
exported to England. That country
welcomed them warmly and exports
to Europe grew from Ia, 600 boxes In
1896 to l6, 900 boxes in 1906.
Until lately the shipping business
was entirely in the hands OF packers
who bought the apples for lump sums
on the trees from the orchardists, but
In the last three years the custom OF
handling the fruit on commission has
grown in favor, the orchardist pick
ing his fruit and hauling to the pack
ing house where 1t is packed and
marketed on commission basis. This
system gives better results both to
buyer and seller. Sales of orchards
for lump sums of money are decIeas-
ing, although 1t will be many years
before they disappear altogether.
The package used is the Watsonville
box, DIN. xllx22in. for four and four
and half tier, and Gin. xl2x22ln. for
three tier. Apples are graded into the
following sizes. -Four and-half tier,
2Ain. to 259in. in diameter; four
tier, 2 to 8 In. In diameter three
tier, above in. in diameter
IL is to be regretted that we have
not fruit package law, such as exists
in Canada. at present the packer
turning out first class pack, true to
quality and description marked on the
box, has to compete with more or less
dishonest packs put up by unscrupu-
lous and ignorant packers.
In the matter of transportation, the
Pajaro valley Is dependent on single
line, the Southern Pacific. 1t is pos
sible, however, that in a year or two
1t may have competing line, either
the Western Pacific or the Santa Fe.
The valley Is also cursed with an eX
elusive refrigerator car contract be-
tween the Southern Pacific and one of
the leading refrigerator car lines. 1t
Is to be hoped that time will soon
remedy both of these evils.
The culture of apples has 30 far been
profitable, both to raisers and to
packers and shippers. OF course, as
In all sections where apples are raised
in quantities, pests have appeared to
worry the orchardists The San Jose
scale, the woolly aphis and the Goblin
moth have been the principal enemies,
Scientific spraying, systematic
methods and carful culture have so far
overcome all of these difficulties, al.
though they are not exterminated and
will appear again as soon as care Is
relaxed. p, W. Morse In the Packer.