The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-19
Farm Products Have Doubled
 in Value In Ten Years
STRAWBERRIES IN MARkE I
Apple Dealer in New York Explains Why Apples Are So High By Saying Consumption Has
 Been Too Limited.

l F aTIllnk Tn lIe GDilSQ OtdltS IdS pAOD- 1 ably made more progress during 19Oe i than any other industry" was the com 1 nent made in Wall street this week by a 1 big railroad operator. Farmers are realizing and so are railroad men, bank CTS, merchants and manufacturers that to the famer we must look for most of our substantial prosperity. The steel and Iron industries may be running full tilt the railroads may have more business than they can handle, but let the farmer get discouraged and down comes tumb- ling every other business enterprise,' he went on.
 The value of farm products is placed at $s. 76o, ,0OO0OO an increase of $S6s. 100000 over 1908 and nearly double the value of ten years ago. The value of products in Il years has been s7O,O0O O0Oo.oO0. The may crop is valued at s665 10000; oats at s4OO 900, GOO; potatoes at s212,O00, 600; tobacco 1 at nearly slOO,Ooo,e 600; wheat at $725- 100000; corn at S1,720,0C0ooO, and the lint and seed of cotton crop at sS5s, 900. l The production of all cereals combined l is 4.711,Oo0,OOO bushels, an amount con siderably greater than that for any oth- CT year except 1906. The value of all cereals in 1909 has never been equaled ! in a previous year. It is almost exactly 1 $S.oo0, 100000, or 34 per cent above the | five-year average. The increase in the value of farm products this year over 1908 is sS6s,OOO,0o0, is enough to buy new 1 equipment of farm machinery for 6,0OO,- 600 farms, Farming, instead of being | looked upon as only the occupation for ] the lazy uneducated class, now evil dently takes foremost rank among the industries of America. All railroad pres idents seem to agree on this point as do many bankers, merchants and brokers with whom l have talked.
 New York has a steady supply of strawberries coming in from Texa$ now they expect a much finer crop next year because the quality of the berry is such that buyers find a readier sale for 1t than the supply which heretofore used to come from the West Indies. Tyler, Inde- pendence, Ponchatoula and Alvin, Texas, are coming into outside markets with strawberries. A great part of the Ty- Ter and Alvin berries are being marketed in Galveston and other Texas cities as heretofore. but the berries from other 1 sections are being shipped to New Or l leans. Memphis, Chicago and New York ! now on our markets regularly" re- marked a big local dealer to me the other | V al -f | The same dealer told me Tyler is prepar- | ing for a big crop in 1910, thousands of ! plants having been secured from North 1 Carolina, Illinois and the Borden sec i tion of the Indiana strawberry favor ites.
 l Florida oranges are here in great and | fine quantities. Fancy varieties were ir demand everywhere and good prices were realized. This supply was short. There was wide range in prices. Some were sold as high as s6 a box.
 1 I was told by one dealer that while 1 most orange sections in Florida are find 1 ing that the orange crop has been over ! estimated, the reverse is true in tho l Wauchula section, and instead of hay ing 10000 or 12o.0oO boxes there will bs between 1S5,OoO and 10000 boxes of frui shipped from this station. The Wau chula section has experienced a droutf the same as the other orange sections | but here it has not affected the size O | the oranges and the crop this year f. desirable sizes and in demand. Amos half the crop was carried on the treel until after the holidays, there being onl! so.o0o boxes shipped up to this time.
 "Gravete. Ark, had 2913 barrels of ap ples in cold and common storage on De cember l, 1908, and this year the sam town has over 4o00 barrels on storage. said one of the largest apple dealers il the east this week when I asked hin why the price of apples continues s high. He is a New York wholesaler an, knows apples as well as does superin tendent Landis knows all about the coin turned out of the Philadelphia mint
 Tt must be clear tlRt if there f any trouble in the apple market 1t is no in the over supply but in under con sumption. If the latter, why? Is it be | cause the American people do not lik apples or Is 1t because they cannot ge 1 all the apples they want?' He then gav me an illustration to show me why ap ples and many fruits may be selling a such extravagant prices. Recently | visited town near New York" he wen on. ''In a grocery store l found the, got 50 cents a peck for ordinary grad apples or $40 per bushel or s7.20 bar rel They were sold to the grocerymal by a jobber 20 miles away and ha. passed through two hands between grow CT and consumer. From the quality
 should say the grower got s a barre and yet this was an increase of 240 pc cent within 70 days. This curtails con sumption enormously Judge the rest fo yourself" and I had my answer.
 The New York representative of tn Georgia fruit exchange has procure
 much data and returned home this wee
 after attending the regular monthl
 meeting held at Atlanta, Ga, the weel before Christmas, when a report wa submitted to the members of the exec utive committee. He assisted in maxim
 thorough canvass of the entire stat and told me he expects his organization
 to sign even a larger percentage of tn fruit crop for the season of 1910 thal ever before He says the growers real ize that since the exchange has beel handling the Georgia fruit crops bet ter market more satisfactorily handles has resulted and that there will be m 1 limit to the market for Georgia fruit
 
 EIectrocuted For Murder.
 Columbus, Ohio. January 18.-Harr Rife. who, on July 8, 1909, murdered Mrs