Evening star., 1917-10-21
BY JAMES B. MORROW.
lllNN@@lli1IllllJilllrlElll

7T REQUIRED 1,16O locomotives to
move last years apple crop to
market. Behind each locomotive
q there we forty cars. In each car
there were $50 barrels A barrel Of
apples measures about three bushels.
Over the railroads alone. lake ves-
sells and river boats not entering into
the calculation. 7.41s,240 barrels Of ap-
pies were hauled from orchards to
large cities. The crop. however. totaled
67.695.O barrels. Half of 1t was sold.
probably by the growers. The other
half was eaten by the farmers them
selves.
AS compared with last year, the
yield of 1917 is about $685., 900 barrels
than was the crop Of 1915 and falls 25.-
100000 barrels behind the harvest Of
1914
Apples. then. will be expensive this
winter. They would have been expensive
anyway, perhaps had the crop been of
the bumper variety. AS it is. they can in
good countenance keep step In the up
ward march with beans and meat.
October is the big month of the
movement Of apples from the country
to the cities. Shipments begin in June.
but in small quantities. Early apples
are plentiful In August. The storage
of winter apples begins late in 6epten-
ber and goes on until the close OF the
year November Is the second largest
month for shipments.
Frosts, late last spring, damaged the
crops in New York and Michigan Bios
SONS of the Baldwins. breaking through
their buds under the warmth Of
where in the country the yield was
practically normal.
Perhaps % per cent of the stock OF
commercial apples Is grown ordinarily
in New York. Crop failures In that
state, therefore, act upon the general
market There are home orchards and
commercial orchards everywhere. al
most The former supply the farmer
and his neighbors; the latter supply
the rest of the people. Nearly every
farmer in New York grows apples for
sale. Orchards of from ten to forty
acres are common.
An average crop of apples. based on
the figures for Ave years. has value
Of about s147 100000. The crop Of 1915.
however was valued at $1S6, 900. A
barrel of apples last year was worth
s275 to the grower. Why did the con-
sumer, buying by the barrel, pay from
81 to Sc?
The question was taken to Prof. Lee
Cleveland Corbett, the apple expert OF
the national government and himself
an orchard owner: once the harvese IS
Barrels cost about so cents apiece
The freightage to market adds an
other half dollar to the cost. Whether
apples are stored two months or longer,
the charge Is the sanie-oo cents OAR
rel
$50 far, then. the price paid to the
farmer is increased by necessary ex-
penses in the sum of $1.50 a barrel. Now
NJ Hn nn1 fvNer Y0rir q
a commission claimed by the wholesale
merchants. Let us suppose that 1t As
cents To the SITS, the farm value of
apples. add $3.50 and also As cents. and
retailer is almost IS. But if the ap-
pies were Of superior quality the
grower last year, probably, in some In
stances, received more than $2.76. For
the crop of 1915, however, he only got
s2O7 The yield that year was large.
Now it must be remembered that in
figuring the farm value of apples the
whole country is brought into the prob
lem. Fancy northwestern apples. wrap
ped in paper and packed in boxes. are
Jumped in with the barrel apples of the
east and central west.
when the farmer this side of the
Mississippi river gets less than 81 a
barrel for his crop. he is not making
money. provided he is following the
best culture methods. A survey of
eighty-seven orchards in the state of
Washington showed that the producing
cost of apples was at the rate of so
cents a box, or s2.4G a barrel.
Apples will not grow automatically
They are not lazy mans crop. II let
alone. they will revert to type and be-
come sour, little crab-apples In the
course of time 1t costs the Washing
ton orchardists $470 an acre to keep
their trees up to the mark and to gath
er and pack their crops.
"A study of 1875 orchards in Colorado
brought out the fact that the expense
of production there was "a cents a box,
or S252 a barrel. On forty-nine of the
farms the investment amounted to $761
an acre. It was learned that on fifty
feu1 foxUe u tAA Heo6 river Val&oY .AS