The San Francisco call., 1906-11-11
YEARS PRUN[ CROP
4 HEAVY ONE.
Product Is Nearly All in
Hands of Dealers, Who
Look for a Good Price
WEATHER FAVORABLE

Prune men in various sections of
California are telling big stories about
/ the prune crop of California for 1906.
The total crop of prunes this year is
estimated at Iso.oO0.eoe pounds. the
largest since 1900. when the prune out
put ran UP to 2oo,000.O00 pounds. The
crop is nearly au out of the hands OF
the producers and I'm the hands of pack
ers and dealers. The handlers stand to
win many thousands of dollars on ris-
ing prices.
The conditions have been favorable
for marketing the California crop to
. advantage. Excessive rains destroyed
half of the Oregon crop. which prom
ised to be a record breaker at the be-
ginning of the season The. French
crop is turning out much less than was
estimated early in the season Another
factor in the demand is that there
was absolutely no ''carry-over" of the
crop. for the first time in ten years,
. the previous years crop having been
absorbed by the trade. This created a
time to satisfy.
Still another factor that must be
counted in as a market consideration is
the uncertainty of the coming crop. as
il is seldom that there are two large
crops in succession.
OPENING SALES HEAVY.
Sales at the opening prices were eX-
ceedlngly heavy. Under constant pres
sure to sell, lower prices were accepted
by some of the smaller packers and
the market was gradually forced TO a
point where one Of the biggest volumes
of business in the history of the trade
enormous early demand, there has been
a steady trade from all sections From
various sources information is derived
that there is almost an absolute clean
up of stocks in the country and pack
ers are carrying much lighter supplies
than usual at corresponding dates.
W. T. Williams, one of the largest
prune- growers of the Santa Clara Val
ley. says that the prune tonnage of
Santa Clara will run near TO l20, 600. 900
pounds. as against S0,000,000, the earlier
estimate Notwithstanding the i'm
mense crop, the perfect curing weather
during the entire season has enabled
the growers to save every pound of
their fruit and to turn out stock of
unequaled quality.
The principal packers in the Santa
Clara Valley say that the volume OF
business booked TO date is unprece-
dented. Most of the packers have been
working TO full capacity during Sep
tember. October and into November,
with enough sales ahead TO keep them
busy all this month, and they will do
well TO fill their orders by January /.
From IS TO 80 per cent OF the county s
crop has been sold and very few pack
ers in the valley have fruit in excess
of the actual sales made. In no sea
son in many years have the dried fruits
OF this State been cleaned up as-sthey
are this year.
MARKET Is CLEANED UP.
E. B. Shook, manager of the Star
Dried Fruit Company of Healdsburg,
reports that the demand for Heaids-
burg prunes has been heavy and suf-
feient to clean UP the market. Shook
says that there are not ten carloads of
prunes left in the hands of growers in
Sonoma County. Eastern jobbers will
be disappointed in their expectation OF
buying at lower prices ,than those pre-
vailing now. Prunes at the present
prices are a good purchase, according
to Shook.
w. NJ. Fisher of the Fisher Packing
Company at Napa is of the opinion that
stocks are cleaned up more than at the
corresponding date in any of the ten
preceding years Few prunes in the
State are unsold.
Z. c. Merritt, president of the Mer-
ritt Fruit Company of Santa Rosa, and
Colonel Philo Hersey of San Jose
]
! foregoing. Hersey says that the en-
tire crop could be marketed at cents
pound by concerted action.
The Sonoma Valley as a whole is
more closely cleaned up than ever be-
fore at this early stage of the season, .
says NJ. L. Mcdonald of NJ L. McDon-
aid & Co. Ralph Butler. manager OF
the Napa Fruit Company. says that
fewer prunes remain unsold than ever
before at the corresponding date.
]. & /. Blum of Vacaville report that
the price of prunes will be cents OF
better, with big premium on the
large sizes, before long. The market
situation warrants the holders Of the
few remaining prunes in asking higher
prices than those now prevailing" he
said.
Frank Scarlet declares that there is
no large quantity of unsold prunes in
Solano County The local packers have
been the principal purchasers of stocks
A D. Cults of Marysville is quoted to
the same effect as others. Referring tc
Yuba, he said: 'It is doubtful IL car
load of prunes could be obtained in the
entire county"