Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1909-04-23
VALUABLE HINTS TO VIRGINIA
APPLE GROWERS.
From the Times Dispatch. }

NC Ohb Va CNti = Ohc ~ ~DN'N
not tell you anything about where the
apple crop came from, and 90 per cent.
wouldn't care.
Our Roanoke editor also thinks our
apples find their way to Europe and
other places. Here lies the trouble :;
our farmers know nothing OF market
ing their crops. have been through
the HoCd and Rogue River Valleys OF
Oregon, the very heart OF the apple
growing West. l have also been over
Albemarle county, Bent Mountain, in
Roanoke county, and all through the
Valleys of Virginia, and not only does
Virginia grow the finest apples in the
world, but the gods must have paused
before putting the finishing touch to
her beautiful green mountains, crystal
streams and fertile valleys to make
this wonderland of beauty and
wealth
Think of great factory with skilled
labor, unlimited supply of raw ma
terial. and turning out as fine a pro-
duct as the world produces, and then
learn that they have no statesmen
local or travelng-but that the owners
sit down and wait for the trade toI
find out where the factory is and
come and buy the output. y strange
way of doing business in this twen-
tieth century of hustle and cOmpeti-
tion. This is what the apple-growers
OF Virginia are doing. They wait each
season for some good-hearted buyer
TO come and buy the crop. These
buyers pay las | understand from al
man selling and Lying in the apple
belt from 90 cents to Sl25 a barrel
on the tree. They know good thing,
and they come every year and buy
and double and treble their money.
was told a few days ago by al
Norfolk and Western agent, who lives
in the apple belt, that a buyer fell out
with an old farmer last yeaT because
he refused TO take 10 cents less on the
barrel than he had been getting. The
BUYER left and the old man worried,
and as last resort consulted the Nor
folk and Western agent. who told him
TO take a train 10 West Virginia and
sell 10 the stores of some big mining
company. He did, asking II, 900 more
than he had beeL selling for. and the|
company took him up. and closed al
deal for his crop every year. | count
ed on retail fruit.siauds today in his
city population 5000 forty boxes
of Washington and Oregon apples,
containing ninety-siX apples each i
these cost $50 "a box laid down IN
Tampa, being over 81 cents apiece
They retail at cents each ; they are
polished, wrapped in tissue-paper' and
are the same size. spoke to retail
dealer and he was eager to get the
name of a dealer in Virginia. | also
talked with Crenshaw Bros, l306-l3OS
Franklin street, wholesale fruit deal
ers. who had bought few Virginia
md North Carolina apples, and found
them badly packed, dirty and irregu-
lar in sizes that he quit handling
them. He showed me his bills. He
paid between September ard December
all the way from =. 10 TO 500 barrel
f. o. b. point in Illinois. He said be
would be glad to handle Virginia ap
piles If they we're sized. polished and
properly packed in barrels. He would
handle from thirty car loads up and
paw the best market price according
to season, etc.
Florida and California used to de-
pend on buyers who came AMI bought
the orange crop on the trees. The
prices got so low the growers barely
made a living. So the California grow
er. formed az orange growers associa
ton, which taught the people how to
pick. pack, ship and Systematically y
| market their crop to the best advan-
ltlpe. Florida has followed suit, and
under +. w. Inman, OF Florence Villa,
Fla. is putting this system to work
with d remarkable incresse in price ;
this year. The people in California
spent fifteen years of work and thous-
ands OF do lars to effect a system 10
markc, properly and thoroughly dis
tribute tne.r oranges. The entire crop
Ii, sold through Il general oliice il Los
| Angeles. which in turn has statesmen
ira Yelling all over the cOunlry. IN this
way they sell every city, large and
small, IN the c,untry supply, the de
mand and never gut any market. This
Office force is employed by the organ
n ,,on. and the expense to each farmel
to sell his cr1p is "a trle.
I think Oregon and Wasi lngtol
Ihaye an apple growers Organization
a ong similar lines. Perhaps this 4
why they pay from $500 TO $500 Il
acre for nnimproyed land and frCn
81 900 to $1,000 an acre for impi oge'
Hand, fight all the diseases and pest
, that bother the trees, then ship thei
: fruit from 5000 TO 400 mics am
. make money: while Virginia has tn
v best of land, wafer plentiful every
e where, good cheap labor. and grow
: the finest apples in the world, Will
her farmers realize such little prot
though living at the door of the be:
markets. There is reason why May
be it's the man behind the gun.
FRANK BROWN,
s Tampa, Fla, April Sth.