The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-12-06
PRICES HAMMERED
DOWN
Okanogan Man in st. Louis
Writes of Conditions
in East.

The Daily World is in receipt of
letter from J. C. Gay of Okanogan,
who is now in st. Louis. The letter
contains some very important matter
to fruit growers and is given in full.
1t says
ST. Louis, Mo, Dec. 1, 1910.
Knowing that you, as we'll as the
readers of the Wenatchee Daily
World are vitality interested in the
apple situation, / beg to give you a
few of my experiences here in ST.
Louis.
In the first place find the mar
ket glutted with the choice variety
of fruit-some from Wenatchee--
lots of it from Yakima and still more
from Idaho and Colorado.
There is but little extra fancy fruit
on the market and it seems that the
buyers do not discriminate between
the extra fancy, fancy and choice.
Yesterday | attended an auction
at the American Central Fruit Auc-
| tiOll COMPANY anu out ms thO iAOi IL
| ing they sold a car Of extra fancy,
fancy and choice fruit from E. A.
Farris of Orondo, consigned to them
by the Northwestern Fruit Exchange.
In the car were some IL tier extra
fancy Spitzenberg apples which
brought 500 per box. and from that
lprice the other varieties sold in a
steadily descending scale, down as
far as s1.05 per box.
There was another car Of choice
Yakima fruit tell you this in or
| der to show you how the buyers dis
criminate between grades-contain-
| ing a few boxes of choice Arkansas
| Black. The same man who paid
$40 for Spitzenbergs extra fancy.
12 tier) bought these choice Ar
! kansas Blacks at $40.
| | found one car of Hood River
valley extra fancy stock being sold
| by one of the retail stores here and
| bringing at retail from. 1915 for
Jonathans, $3.50 for Spitzenbergs to
$3.50 and $3.50 for Delicious.
The buyer for this store told me
he had gone to Wenatchee for his
! fruit and asked a representative of
the Northwestern Fruit Exchange as
to where he could buy the best ap-
pies in the northwest. He was in
formed that Hood River valley grew
| the best apples, and it was their ad-
vice to him that if he wanted to give
his trade the highest grade. best
| favored apples, he should go to
Hood River for them.
This seemed rather strange to me,
owing to the, fact that | know many
Wenatchee parties to be interested
in the Northwest Fruit Exchange;
for instance, our mutual friend Mike
Koran is vice president. Now, I
know, and you know. that Wenat-
chez grows the finest fruit in the
world, with the possible exception of
the Okanogan valley.
tried to show this buyer the
error of his ways and have his prom
Use that next year, for his fancy
trade, he will come to Wenatchee
anu Duy w eHdtCHSe dpploo'
| have been on record in your col
umns as favoring an organization of
all the fruit growers associations of
Wenatchee and North Central Wash
ington, and of having them build up
selling organization of their own.
My visit here and my study of con-
ditions shows me clearly that this is
the only way in which we Of the
northwest can satisfactorily handle
our apples.
We cannot and must not, If We
wish to maintain our present values,
place our fruit in the hands of COM
| mission men to be sold as they see
fit This car sold at auction was the
best car at present in st. Louis. and
should have brought good price;
instead it sold for actually less than
it would have brought in Wenatchee.
] find very great interest mani
tested in this city and surrounding
section in the Wenatchee valley and
in the Upper country-the Okano-
gan.
| ] will exhibit here in the Great