The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1912-04-11

sold at virtually cost, so that whereas
we made a profit of upwards of 5000
of Of supplies in the season Of 1910.
We have barely cleared ourselves this
season in the handling of the same.
q will dwell for short time on
market conditions and prices for the
past season. also the quality of the
apples which we were required TO
handle for this season and incidentally
We will give you.Just touch of some
of our troubles. inasmuch as the dis
satisfied element Of the Union, so far
as we are able to ascertain, are max
ing their battle cry this That the
present board.of directors and manager
do not get old time prices for the ap-
piles. | think in taking up this matter
that | will give you the general condi-
tions of our markets in the United
States as they were during the selling
period last September and October. II
seems to be an accepted fact by many
of our growers that all that is neces-
sary for the board of directors and
manager to do is to ask a certain high
price for our product and that eastern
buyers must have the apples and must
pay the prices asked. la other words,
it is purely a question as many of our
stockholders see it. of the board Of
directors and the manager following
out the scriptural injunction, Ask
and II shall be given unto you.
The buyer of apples is not especial
Iy inclined to do just what the grower
wants him to DO, but the buyer has
ideas of his own. inasmuch as it is his
own money which he hazards, and he is
not going to come out to Hood River
early in the fall aud load up with a lot
of apples merely to accommodate the
growers. II he does buy early he is
liable to figure that he is going to
have a margin for himslef. We speak
of the above because of the great crit
icsms which we have heard against
the present management has been that
we do not get returns out sufficiently
early in the season. and we have had
many apples for late markets to get
| better prices.
There is ample field for board of
director and manager to get obstreper-
GUS kicks made against them; for in.
stance, we will assume that the aver.
age grower in this valley, and our
books will sshow that they do, has sis
varieties of apples, and many of then
have thirty. These six varieties of ap
pies are divided into two grades, eacl
grade containing three sizes; in al
each variety has six divisions, aud thu
six varieties makes 36 divisions, am
300 growers each having apples in g
divisions makes total of over 10, 00
chances for kicks coming against th
board of director and manager, an
what would like TO see is u photo
graph of the man or men who can &
through a season and not get a kic
with 10, 600 chances against them.
'We desire to give moments al
tention to the question of field inspet
tion at packing time. Owing to tn
very light crop this last season it wa
thought that two inspectors. one 70
the east side and one for the west side
could handle that line of the business
properly and efficiently. We therefor,
engaged the services of Walter Vannie
for the east side and II. j. Lindsay fo
the west side Both of these gentle
men had their headquarters at thei
own mes, nearly in the center o
THEN respective territories. Both o
them are well up on apple packing anC
grading and we believe them both L
be earnest, conscientious and reliable
men in this line Of work, and aftel
studying over the situation for a Ions
time we felt that we could not picl
men who would do better work thar
they, and we further believe that they
did all in their power to do their worl
well and generally speaking, we ar,
certain that they did their work prop
erly and efficiently, and in general The
results Of their work show that they
were efficient. Relative to the eXtrt
fancy grade as packed under theiI
supervision, we desre to say that sc
far as the quality of the fruit of the
extra fancy grades went, we have hac
no complaint, except possibly on some
of the Bitter stock, but with the fancy
grades we have had, as stated before,
numerous complaints. As you know
this grade was packed with the allow
ance of certain defects and of course
each particular apple which went into
this grade was either deficient in color
or else had some blemish on the sur
face otherwise they would have gone
into the extra fancy grade. The facts
of the matter are, gentlemen, that the
growers crowded this gra e to thC
very limit and over the limit, and we
are not blaming our troubles with this
grade entirely to our field inspectors
To our certain knowledge they gave
special attention to giving instruc
tions to the several packers and grow
ers relative to what blemsishes c0ulC
90 into this grade and they held dOwI
the growers and packers as far as i
was in their power, and we must urge
the growers. if they wish to have thei
apples packed extra fancy and fancy
in the future, that it IS for their owl
interest not to crowd into this fancy
grade apples which have unsighltl
blemishes.
"The question Of by.products shoulC
be taken up later on for the reason
that with our increasing output w
will continually have more and more
apples which will either have to be al
lowed to decay at the growers homes
or else made into cider. and the ques
tion as to whether or not more can b.
received from the working Of thes,
apples into canned goods, jellies, eide
and vinegar and evaporated apples i
we'll worth the attention of the peopl
of this valley. We have ascertainet
from what little investigation we hay'
made of this matter that on the basl
of l2t cents per pound for the drlel
fruit product that the net returns {
the growers have been SO per ton TO
the green apples. lnasmuchas it take
much better quality apple for dryin
than it does for making into cider,
is doubtful in our opinion whether it
feasible TO undertake the evaporatin
of apples when we can get around s
: per ton for the general trashy stu
which we sell to the cider mills; MOI
, specially so as l2t cents per pound f(
evaporated apples is away above Il
average price for this product fro
: year to year.
DIR. Stanton Allen in making a nom