The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-03-30
SPROAT WRITES
LONG LETTER
EXPLAINS MARKETING SITUATION
Warns Members of Union Against Giving
Proxies and Urges All to Attend
the Annual Meeting.

| thN huiuui NtNthiSs
! Because of misunderstanding said
to pervade the minds of growers, re-
sulting in a disappointment at the re-
turns of last years crop, Manager
Sproat, of the Apple Growers Union,
submits the following communication
to the stockholders of the organization,
making a cogent appeal to them to
attend in person the annual meeting
Saturday and take an active part in
the decision of important matters that
are sure to arise:
| To the Stockholders of the Hood River
Apple Growers Union.
Gentlemen We know that there is
feeling of disappointment prevailing
among the growers of apples in Hood
River this season over the results of
the net returns for the apple crop.
This applies more particularly to our
two leading varieties, the Spitzenburg
and the Newtown However, it may
not be amissa to say that this disap-
pointment is not confined to Hood
River entirely. The fact is, great dis
satisfaction prevails among the grow
ers in all the box apple sections of the
Northwest.
The causes which have tended to
particularly affect Hood River are
what most interest us. Certain factors
combined and working together have
resulted in our receiving lower prices
than we ordinarily would have done.
One of the principal factors was the
remarkable size of the apples them
selves. The season was so very favor
able to the growth of fruit and the
| vigOr of the trees so very great that
the apples grew unusually large and
consequently were soft and of very
poor keeping quality. In years gone
| by buyers have offered high prices for
the very large apples, knowing that
there would be only very small per
cent of them, and because of their
very great scarcity they were pressed
upon the market more as novelty and
curiosity than because of their real
worth.
This season the great bulk of both
Spitzenburgs and Newtowns, as we'll
as all other varieties grew unusually
| large and it was common occurrence
for us to ship out cars of these goods
with rs per cent of them 88s and larger
The market was thus glutted with
large sized apples of poor Keeping
quality, for it is well known in the
trade that the large sized apples are
not good keepers. Buyers at the other
end are wise from experience and well
knew that these large apples would not
keep in storage and therefore they
were not inclined to buy them to put
into storage for a later trade. The
result was that these large sized apples
were forced upon the market for i'm
meIiate consumption, and consequently
the selling prices were greatly lowered
over those which have prevailed in past
seasons.
The peculiar part of this years apple
business was, that no sooner had these
large apples commenced pouring in
upon the market than the trade began
calling for small sized apples. We
have numerous kilograms and letters
filed in our office calling for us to ship
them smaller sized apples, which we
were unable to do because we did not
have them. For instance, we had one
customer who bought and would have
taken 10000 boxes of 4b tier Fancy
Spitzenburgs and to whom we could
ship only 1000 boxes, all we had of this
size. Very frequently in trying to fill
orders which called for small sized
fruit, we Gndeavored to have our clients
take the large sizes rather than lose
the sale, and upon the arrival of the
goods, the buyer after inspecting them
would hold the cars up and demand
rebates because of the too large sizes,
and the bookkeeping quality of the
goods. 1t is not probable that these
fconditions will prevail again very soon.
1t is the first time in ten years eX-
perience that we have had these condi-
tons so far as relates to the great
percentage of large sizes and nOn-keep-
ing condition of Hood River apples.
Another factor which enters into the
matter is the fact that the entire box
apple section of the Northwest was
without any home storage and it was
found necessary to get as many apples
into the Eastern markets as early as
possible before cold weather set in.
This threw the entire crop Of apples Of
the other Northwestern sections upon
the market during the months Of OctO-
Der and November, with the result that
all the principal markets were glutted
and all soft and bookkeeping varieties
were sold regardless Of values. 1t
being impossible to get storage-in-
transit rates, the entire crop was
forced upon the market at terminal
points, and only the very longest
keepers were put in storage.
The English and Continental markets
have always been prejudiced against
large sized apples and this season
because of so large proportion being
large sized, these markets were over
supplied and these large apples sold at
very low prices. We desire to note
here that we have account sales from
English houses in our Office showing
sizes of Newtowns ranging from l75s
to zoos selling for 5 shllings per box,
$l.25 in our money, more than the sizes
ranging 88s and larger.
Another element entering into the
! selling of the crop this year was the
fact that we had $50, 900 boxes Of the
: several varieties listed with US by the
, growers, which were nearly all sold
early, except the Ben Davis and the
NeWtowns, but as the season advanced
the receipts from the growers contin.
ued coming until the aggregate amount
ed to nearly 400, 600 boxes. The storage
facilities at Hood River, both as
regards the Union warehouses and the
storage room at the several growers
homes, were so very inadequate that
the apples were necessarily forced con.
stantly out. There seemed to be a
! determination on the part Of the
7 growers to move their apples from
= their home places, 50 much so that the
entire crop was practically moved away
from the orchards by the 18th Of No
vember. AS the storage capacity Of
the Union is not to exceed 80, 00(
boxes, it was therefore necessary t
move out of Hood River over 5000
} boxes from the beginning Of the seasol
prior to Dec. lst. This may look t
some to be an easy matter, but doing
it is a different proposition.
The necessity for more cold storag