The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1907-09-10
APPLE PICKERS
HAVE GOOD TIME
In the State of Washington They
Unite Pleasure With Their
Daily Work.

SPOKANE, Wash, Sept 10. -..p
pie pichers in Washington orchares
are having the time of their lives.
The total acreage is near the 100000
mark and the trees are heavily laden
aud wages bigger than ever before
liz .he history of the industry. Tae
t1Op is estimated by growers aai
INSPECTORS to be worth from $4,000
900 to s10.000.p60 this season, ana
of this more than $5,000,00O will be
paid for fruit packed for export.
The bulk of the crop is made up. OF
sap. Jonathan and other winter va
rieties which can be shipped any
where, the chief districts being the
Yakima, Wenatchee, Spokane and
Prosser valleys in the order named
Much of this fruit will be sent to
the Atlantic coast markets. and Eng
land, France, Germany. Australia,
and the Orient. New York, Boston
and Chicago are the chief distrib-
uting points east of the Rocky noun
tains and from these the jobbers AMI
dealers in various parts of the west.
east and south are supplied. The
big red apple is the fayorite Of Amer
leans and Australians. while the Eng
lishmen are fond OF the various va
rieties OF pippins, which also make
regulations in Denmark and Sweden
and other parts of Europe.
Stated commercially. the crop OF
Washington this year is a matter of
5 900, ,OeO boxes. each containing 81
pounds OF appies. Tie lrult was
grown in 81 counties, those having
more than -. 900 trees being YAM
ma. i,24S,00O Chelan, 400 900: Spo-
kane 3l1,160; Pierce 10000;
Whitman, 293 COO Cowlitz, 1885,
900; kinsap. 1900; Nhatcoil
10000; Columbia, so. 900; and
Thurston. $4,000 The crop would
fill S,333 cars of 10000 pounds each,
or make $50 trains OF 35 cars eh,'-
Laid end to end the boxes, Is III
ches in length and II inches hiSn,
would strtch ,420 miles. and IL PHI
ed up they would make shaft 94i
miles high.
Packers do EoJ pack barrels ii
this country. They are too nn-
wieldy. Pine boxes are used, and
they reach the growers and packers
knocked down. the price being
12 u cents each, to which must be
added one cent for mailing. AS
rule pickers and packers are palp
by the day, tht wage scale running
from s2.25 to SO day, though IN
some instances the pickers are pal'
by the box or the entire orcbafo'
which contain from so to lOS trees
tho acre. The average cost OF pick
ing. packing and package 10 the
grower is 25 cents, but 1t IS not u.i-
usual for shippers or com'hission
men 20 buy the products OF the orch
lard on the trees. paying from - ~
s1.o5 box, and doing all the WORK
As Washington apples are no"
handled in the highest priced mar
kets of the world, every care is Tan
en- with the packs, the fruit beine
select and uniform in size. color an
flavor. They are hand-packed after
grading and every precautl0n is tah
en- against bruising and they are
free from stains and posts. Every
apple is wrapped in paper TO pre-
vent contact Only the highest quar-
ity fruit is selected for export, ant
for this the growers receive at ieas
81 a box, more in the foreign mar
kets than they do in the local mar
kets, where competition is not sc
keen. Bostonians viii reality pay
the top price for big red apples. thS
New York market is best for Wine
saps and Spitzenbergs and Chicago
wants flavor more than color an1
size.
Fruit infected with the codliF
moth or San Jose scale is confscatee
and destroyed wherever found, aRa
to give the consumer every protect
ion against these pests and insar'
the freedom from disease, F. 4
Huntley. state fruit commissioner
has an experienced horticulturist a.
inspector in each of the big apple
session, also enacted several laws t;
Insure better fruit, among the pro
visions being the following:
..All boxes, crates, baskets or pack
lagos containing fruit offered or trans
i iported for sale within this state sha,
be marked with the name of the va
) riety Tor if the variety is unknowl
; the said box, crate. basket or pack
tage shall be marked variety un