Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1914-11-12
APPLE GROWERS
MUST TAKE PRICE
FIXED BY TRUST
Niagara County Man Says They
Are Getting S1.50 a Barrel
for Fruit That Has Cost
$500 Packed.

new YORK state apple growers tney are
victims of a buyers trust and are com
PEELED to sell their fruit In some in
stances for less than the cost Of ~pro1uc-
ton and packing.
Said one of them: What expert apple
buyers nave pronounced the finest crop
of any orchard in Niagara county has
been sold for $50 per barrel. Including
the barrel. the cost to the farmer Is s..
The apples are packed according to the
high New York standard. Each barrel
must contain no apple less than 21 inches
In diameter, and the fruit must be -
per cent. perfect. The barrel itself costs
40 cents. The expense of spraying and
care for the orchard Is not included In
the s.. According to the reports given
In the New York papers, these apples are
$3.50 a barrel in New York city. In
Niagara Falls, barely IA miles from Lock-
port. cooking apples are sold in the gro
Gerry stores at GO cents a bushel. In Buff
falo, 20 miles distant, the consumer pays
from 50 cents to 81.
LAW HASN'T HELPED THEM.
when the state law regulating the
standard packing Of apples was ena,ted
- ''' 'hiiAA' Aiii NiI' 'ouIl "oull -
n higher price for the Al grade; but TIL
apple buyers will not give 1t. Unclassi-
fed fruit sells for $3.50. Buyers inform
those who sell inferior fruit. We will
stand behind you and all harm One
even advised his customer to run through
his apples at the rate of 100 barrels a day.
eff I do your name will go on the
barrels, not mine was the reply. But
he declined, declaring he would not vio-
late the law.
81 know of 20 barrels of first class
greetings standing on the ground at a
little railway station, exposed to the ele-
ments, at a buyers orders. The gre yer,
who is called the best packer in the
country, sent for the inspector and asked
him to look at his fruit. The inspector
pronounced it the best packing In the
county.
wi you O. *. those barrels" the
grower asked.
The inspector would not. His duty
was to tell the buyer and seller how
apples must he packed.
Niagara count is the great apple
county of the State. and New York has
double the number of bushels OF anv
State in the Uniop-a greater number
than all Of the States west Of the Mis-
souri, river. Yet no paper in the coun-
~ prints the apple market reports;
and there are at least five daily pa
pers in the county.
AT first the buyer claimed there
was no demand for apples. Now they
say they cannot till their orders for
frstclass fruits. That an apple buy
ers' trust exists is ancient history
Nearly twenty years ago one Of the
buyers was also a fruit grower. He
attended one of the association meet
inss and protested against the low
price the members wanted to pay. but
his protest was voted down. When
the apple crop is harvested the buy-
ers fix the price.
Some time next winter. when New
york standard Al apples are selling at
81 and 80 a barrel. the papers will be
printing stories Of the big profits the
growers are making. And yet the fin
est apples grown in the State, the best
packed fruit IN Niagara county, has been
sold for $3.50 a barrel.
Some may say that the farmer should
store his fruit The available storage in
Niagara county has been secured by
the buyers. and yet they admit they
have stored no fruit. Nearly every buy
err admits he has oversold from 500 to
LOO barrels. They frequently say that
seconds will bring more than frsts.
The classification Of apples for some
buyers has been a Disgrace to the law.
One buyer marked barrels A grade
though the farmer protested they were
not packed az the law required.