Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1910-11-25
How to Handle Appies-Problem for the
Railroads.

The increasing production OF ap-
Piles in the Northwest has furnished
a problem which the great railway
systems centering in ST. Paul will
have to solve. Howard Elliott,
President of the Northern Pacific,
also President of the National Apple
Show, held for the third time in Spo-
kane. Nov. IA to 10, in his opening
address, discussed the question from
various standpoints.
Despite the fact that thousands of
new trees have been planted and the
1909 crop of apples in the Yakima
Valley, Washington, the Bitter
Root Valley, Montana, the Wenat-
chez district on the Great Northern
in Oregon and the various apple dis
tricts in Idaho is the largest for seve-
raj years, the demand for apples and
the new markets opened in all parts
of the world will take every apple
raised.
1t is the getting Of these apples to
market with which the railroads are
concerned. American apples are al
ways at premium in Europe. Far
away Egyptians have taken to the
fruit and want all they can get of it.
Australia on the other side OF the
globe has growing appetite for this
countrys apples. In our own coun-
try where the apple is regarded as
the most health-giving of fruits the
demand is increasing and thus the
railroads find themselves facing the
problem of transporting the fruit.
One OF the new ideas to be suggest
ed by President Elliott is the cree
tion in the great producing districts
OF apple storage houses. He will
recommend that the apples instead
OF being picked from the trees and
rushed to the cars, be placed in these
storage houses where they will be
preceded. 1t has been found that
preceded apples keep better and
taste better than those that are
cooled in refrigerator cars while in
transit.
There are other advantages in this
plan of storing the apples near the
orchards in which they are grown.
1t is believed, for one thing, that the
grower will be able to get better
price for his product by holding it
and shipping when market condi-
tions are improved. The grower
also will have more time for hand
ling his crop and will not have to
rush it to the trains.
The apple production in the Yaki-
ma Valley this year will amount to
5000 cars and it has been estimated
that the establishment of new or
chards in this district alone will
mean the production of $1,000 car
loads at the end of five years. The
ou tput of the other districts will be
pr oportiOnately large.
The Northern Pacific railway has
found it necessary to run solid re-
frigerator trains of 35 cars each on a
9l-hour schedule from points in the
Yakima Valley to St. Paul, which is
almost passeng er-train speed. 1t is
doubtful if any railroad in the coun-
try has $1,000 refrigerator cars that
can be used for the hauling of a
single commodity at a Ger tain time
in the year. 1t is to avoid meeting
such an emergency that Mr.. Elliott
will recommend that the apple
grower hold his fruit in storage
houses and ship it as the demand
comes instead of rushing the whole
crop to the East where it is placed
in storage and held to the advantage
of the jobber.
The United States Reclamation
Service now has under way the re-
clamatiOn of hundreds of thousands
OF acres of land, much of which will
be devoted to orchards in the next
few years. Pears, grapes and other
fruits, of course, will be grown, but
the apple will remain king, and it is