Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1915-11-26

coming East, probably to Maryland, to get
into the fruit-growine game here.
You've got us beaten" he said. I'VE
can no longer compete with the Eastern
fruit. We people of the West have taught
you people of the East how to pack and
market your fruit and you have beaten us
at it. You have the markets close to your
doors, the millions of fruit eaters are right
around your orchards. while we have to
ship our fruit long distances to markets
You can raise as fine fruit as we can raise
and the flavor is better as rule On
some varieties peculiarly adapted to the
climate out there we can beat you, but fol
general run of standard fruits you have
the better of us. do not think you folks
here will ever grow apples with the sheen
on them that ours have, but except in a
very few cases. that does not amount to
much. There is no use denying the facts
or binding ourselves to them-you have
us beaten.
you make much of the flavor of your
fruit, and rightfully so. An Oregon apple
on the Eastrn market will not compare
with an Eastern apple that has been prop
erly raised. How much of this loss of flavor
is due to transportation across the CONT
nent am not prepared to say, but think
it is good deal. But, anyway. our East
ern markets are rapidly GOING no matter
what the cause, and we have got to face
that situation. am pulling out and COM
ing East. The bottom has dropped out Of
the fruit situation out in my country fol
the present
But the people out there are not dis.
heartened, although they are hard hit
They have card up their sleeve and they
are going to win with it. 1t is the cap.
turing Of the Oriental market for theil
fruit. 1t means lot of hard work, the
study of conditions there, the production
of class OF fruit that can be sold for what
those people can pay, and still pay profit
to the growers; the studying of the trans.
portation problem and solving it, and the
study and solution of a dozen other knotty
problems. We may have to invent new
package, as we invented the box for ap
pies, but those people out there are hare
to lick, and they are going to create
market for their fruit among the countless
millions of China and Japan, the million,
in Russia and all that vast territory OF
the other side Of the Pacific. 1t is probabl,
that the high-priced box apple has seeI
its last day in our orchards and we ma,
have to 90 in for quantity instead Of qualit!
now. but whatever will have to be dom
will be done, you can bet on that
Zone of the things that has caused us t
lose out in competition is the labor situa
ton. 1t is serious, not only in the Rogu
River Valley, but in the entire coast sec
ton. and the demands of labor have cate
up all the profits and left nothing for tn
fruit grower. Then, for the last two years
there has been a severe drought in tn
valley that has cut down the crop almos
to nothing. People will have to eat East
ern apples this year or 60 without them.
Mr.. Whistler's opinion of conditions il
the Oregon fruit-growing region was cor
roborated by C. W. Bassett, of the Burea
of Markets of the Department of Agricu
ture. who was one Of the speakers at tn
meeting in the afternoon at the armor,
Mr.. Bassett said the bottom had droppe
out of the fruit-growing business out there
He said he was in charge of the estate {
his sister, in Medford. and that he woul
be delighted to get for the place so pc
cent. of what she had put into it.