The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1915-06-17
CANNERY ATTITUDE
GIVEN BY MIR. SIEG

Editor of the Glacier: From the
item that appeared in your paper and
the Oregonian, | am very much afraid
that you have not the right understand
ing as regards to the attitude of the
Association toward the Hood River
Canning Company.
In the first place let me say that it is
the desire of the Association to promote
in every way possible the interests of
the cannery They are producing an
excellent product which ought to add
to the fame of Hood River, and being
an institution that employs labor, it is
our purpose to aid them in every way
we can. The purpose of the Associa-
tion is to find market for the product
grown by the shippers of this valley
and upon the proper returns for this
product, depends the future of the val
ley.
The ideal situation would be to have
the cannery take all such fruit as can
be delivered to them and have the As
sociation refrain from handling single
package Of cannery fruit, but unfor-
tnuately, our cannery has not az vet
reached the point where they can alb
sorb the entire product grow n in this
valley.
Using the Strawberries as an exam
pie: We have here in the neigbkor
hood of pUssbly 100 tons of field pick
berries. In the year 1914 our cannery
used about so tons of these, which we
supplied them with, but in order to
protect the entire interest Of the val
ley. it was necessary for us to find a
market for the remaining 20 tons,
which in total figures amounted to close
to $4,000.
In 1914 we offered to withdraw from
handling field pick berries and let the
csnnery handle them exclusively. The
only assurance we wanted was that
they should take every berry brought
to them. We offered them our ware
house facilities for any surplus and we
were to load at the actual cost of labor,
but as they could find no outlet for
their surplus, they made arrangements
for their supply through US and we sold
the balance of the output to others.
In making our contracts for this
year, we first considered the interest of
our local cannery and figured to supply
them with all the berries they wanted,
giving them the full preference on all
our receipts, which proposition offered
TO the cRnnery was not accepted, and
TO protect our growers we had to close
a contract outside for the field pick
berries that we were to handle.
In making our contract with outside
parties originally, it was made with the
feeling that the cannery would continue
the same relations with us that they
had last year, and it was very embar-
RAISING to the Association to have them
not accept the proposition and depend
on us for their supply. The field pick
berries are the by-product and it means
considerable money to the grower, but
no cannery is in asposition to use them
no cannery is in position to use them
unless they are assured of regular daily
receipts, and so the embarrassment has
been quite pronounced because we could
not assure our people any regularity.
This is one fact for the future that our
growers must take into consideration,
that is, when we compence to handle
field pick berries, delivery must be
made daily so that we can show daily
deliveries to the cannery we are work.
ing with. We are trying to serve two
masters. Regularity of supply is the
most important assurance we can give