The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-03-30

fall weather and put into storage later
from the car in the East, they do not
survive storage and will not come out
of storagesin good condition. This is
particularly true of apples like the
Black Twigs, Baldwins and also of
Spitzenburgs. The question of saving
of storage charges alone is very
great item. believe it should be the
policy of the Union to practically
store apples of these kinds at home
free so far as possible, or at very
low charge. This plan will save large
storage expense in the cold storage
ware houses of the East where the
charge of cents per box per month
prevails.
am of the opinion that the question
Of more cold storage warehouse room
is the most pressing and important
question before the growers of Hood
River, if they desire to have the bust
ness of growing apples established on
a good firm basis. Apples can be dis
tributed from our Hood River storage
warehouse throughout the entire
United States during the winter
months. We have shipped apples
hIHllS CNSlS udy uullhS billN pdob
winter and have not lost single apple
by freezing in transit With proper
precautions in the papering and loading
of the cars we think there need be no
danger feared along this line.
Our lack of storage facilities this
fall added very greatly TO the expense
in the handling of our apples. As the
apples would be unloaded from the
wagons, one crew of men would be
required to merely set the apples back
in the warehouse during the day, and
a night crew was necessarily put on to
remove these apples and put them into
some other part of the warehouse to
make room for the next days receipts.
A day loading crew, a night loading
crew and car icing crew were at
work loading cars and in the small and
cramped space of our present ware
house with only one small elevator,
these several crews were constantly in
each others way, and very much time
was wasted because of the several
crews wanting to use the elevator at
the same time. 1t was also impossible
to keep the several varieties of apples
entirely segregated and therefore in
loading out car of a certain variety,
it very frequently happened that an
entire block of apples of another
variety would have to be moved in
order to get to the particular variety
to be shipped. This was absolutely
unavoidable and many of the apple i
the warehouse were handled d..
rehandled several times. You will
remember that the receipts frequently
ran from 1000 to 10000 boxes per day.
Another factor which added to the con-
fusion was that at critical times there
was a shortage of refrigerator cars,
when receipts and shipments were
entirely suspended and the warehouse
| filled to its fullest capacity. which is
only another argument in favor of
greater warehouse facilities. Car
shortages are more and more liable to
prevail in the future, as the production
increases, more especially if the
growers insist on their apples being
moved in period of 90 days from the
time Of picking.
The fact that there were several
other Hood River shippers beside the
| Apple Growers Union forwarding apples
to New York City, each to a different
commission house on consignment, was
a demoralizing factor in the holding
up of prices for cur apples in that city,
and this applies especially to the Fancy
Spitzenburgs. These were all placed
on sale upon arrival by the several
consignees at lower prices thar
Messrs. SteinhardU q Kelly could sell
for and clear the cost price of then
purchase from the Apple Growers
Union, thus forcing them either to sell
at loss or store their purchased
goods. 1t would seem to me that il
is greatly to the benefit of all the
growers of Hood River that mutua
understanding relative to this feature
of the business should be arrived al
before another season. If not, the
question arises, will Hood Rivers only
New York f. o. b. buyer come to u
again?
From conversations with many o.
our growers we have found that many
of them do not understand the system
Of pooling prices as established and II
working order under the Union meth
Ods. Briefly stated it is this Ever
grower receives exactly the samt
price for the same grade and size o
any given variety, without regard a
to when the apples are shipped out, thu
pool being made up by dividing thu
total amount Of money received for al
the apples of a certain grade and siz,
Of the same variety, by the number o
boxes Of that certain grade, size anC
variety. A full record of each grade
quantity and size of each variety il
kept in a special book in our OtIiC,
showing the number of boxes shipped
out in each car, date of shipment anC
the returns received for same, all o
which is open to the inspection of ou
growers at any time, but many of Ou
growers have come into the office ant
asked if their particular apples had ye
been shipped and have APPARENT.
seemed surprised to learn that evel
though their apples had been shippet
they were not entitled to any NOR
money per box as an advance thai
their neighbor whose apples ma.
perhaps have been still in the ware
house. Unless the present system 0
pooling prices continues to prevail
the principle of equal justice to all j
fully destroyed. At the same tim
there are exceptions to this rule Fo
instance, it is presumed that apples 0
certain variety should be receive
in their proper season. This fall W
received onathans in December whic
should have been received in October
Also BaldWins which were held yer
late by the growers, both varieite
being overipe on receipt. We did no
feel justified in putting these partic
ular apples into the pool, for we fel
that they should have been receive
, in due season, and we consequent
N sold them on their own merits. w
cite this merely as an illustration t
{ prove that the rule is that all apple
} received in due season of the sam
, grade, variety and sizes must be poole
) and each grower receive same returns
\ RumOrs have recently reached u
0 that there has been some questio
, raised as to whether the apples of tn
Union were well distributed and "
e Continued on Second Page.)