The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1915-09-30

GREAT OBSTACLE
Seconds and Culls Must be Mar.
keted SO as to Bring Sat-
isfact0ry Results

keting of the seconds and culls is the
keynote of an article on "Co-Opera-
tons Greatest Obstacle" by w. Mil
ton Kelly in the September Farm
News" At the request of one of the
Courier Reporters readers the article
is reprinted here in part:
The greatest problem confronting
individual farmers and the big CO.
operative selling associations today
is not overproduction, but undercon-
sumption. There is a tremendous
waste of opportunity in realizing the
maximum value of food products pro-
duced, and both producers and con-
sumers are the losers.
1t is easy to repeat the old and
timeworn truths, and blame the mid
dleman and transportation companies
for our shortcomings, but the wide
gap between the poorly paid farmer
and the poorly fed city dweller can
be closed only by a more complete
utilization of food products. We must
devise means to utilize all of the sur
plus products, and preserve them in
an edible form, so that they may con-
tribute toward feeding our people in
stead Of going back to the soil.
The important point is that much
of the food produced goes to waste
because it is undesirable to place on
the market to compete with the bet
ter grades at the time the products
are being marketed. This curtails
the food supply of the country, and
results in hardship to both producer
and consumer.
By better systems of grading and
classifying farm products, and keep
ing crude stuff from mingling with
the choice, it is possible to obtain
higher prices for the better grades of
farm products. But unless means are
provided for making use of the Gull
stuff and making it up into finished
products, there is sure to be falling
off in consumption, the same as would
result if every feeder persisted in
marketing his pig crop as soon as the
pigs attained a weight of one hum
dred pounds.
This is problem that must sooner
or later be met by every successful
selling organization. If it is success
full in securing more uniform and hon.
est grading and classification of the
products it sells, it must provide a
means for taking care Of the surplus
produced by its members.
Some Of the successful cooperative
organizations in the far West are
studying this problem and studying
methods of working seconds and Gull
stuff into canned goods, fruit juice,
evaporated fruit, apple cider, pre-
serves and similar products. This not
only enables them to secure higher
prices for the firsts and seconds but
it makes it possible for the members
to realize something from their In
ferior grades, and it preserves the
surplus in form which it can con-
tribute to the available food supply of
the country.
While much has been written about
the wonderful success of the apple
growers in the Pacific Coast states in
packing boxed apples and shipping
them to the eastern markets, we are
now facing situation where apples,
a fruit that is adapted to more than
two-thirds of our states, are now sell
ing for more per dozen on the city
markets than oranges. And nine out
of every ten families throughout the
cities of the country look upon this
cosmopolitan fruit as more of a lux.
ury than an orange-and still the ag-
ricultural papers are filled with TOM
myrot telling growers to pack only
one fruit in boxes and keep the bal
ance of the crop off the markets.
This advice, if acted upon, would
put the price of dessert apples at SO
cents per dozen, and leave more than
two-thirds of the crop to rot on the
ground. At the same time we would
be taxed to pay experts to go abou,
preaching to the farmers how tc
prune, fertilize and cultivate their or.
chards so as to grow bigger crops OF
fruit to feed our folks.
In the first place, the older anc
larger trees in the orchards Of the
eastern and middle-western state.
prohibit the system of thinning the
fruit practiced in the Pacific Coas,
regions, and also prevent it colorine
as deep as is the case in the younger
orchards in those regions. Then We
have right at our very doors an i'm
mense trade that demands cheaper ap
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