The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1919-02-20
THE GOOSE
HANGS HIGH
ALL The FRUIT TRADE Is OPTIMISTIC
c. ". McCullagh, Back From Chicago, Re-
ports Best Convention in History
Of Western Fruit JobberS

The goose hangs high for the fruit
growers, If one may base his predic-
tions on the activities and expressions
OF delegates to the annual convention
of the Western Fruit Jobbers of Amer
lea, held the first of the month at Chi
cago. At least, that is the message
that c. W. McCullagh, who returned
last Friday from Chicago, brings back.
The outlook is bright, not only for
apples, but for cherries and strawber-
ries. Mr.. McCullagh states that he
had repeated offers for the purchase of
the Associations entire cherry crop at
handsome figures. A prominent Chi
cago dealer also made an offer for sew
eral carloads of Strawberries, to be
sold on the Chicago market.
I'VE turned down the berry offer
from Chicago" says Mr.. McCullagh,
with the explanation that it was out
of our territory. But as for our cher
ries, Chicago is determined to have
them. The shipments we made last
year in lug boxes, of l6 pounds, GER
tainly made hit.
Mr. McCullagh says the big conven.
tion ot fruit men was declared the big
gest assembly of its kind ever held
outside of political circles. Hotels
were crowded and the committees in
charge very soon ran out of badges and
tickets to banQuets. Whereas former
convention attendants have been num-
bered by the hundreds, those at Chica-
go reached into the thousands. The
interest resulted from the phenomenal
trend of the fruit market for the year.
The annual convention of the fruit
sales concerns will be held next year
at San Francisco, and already one
hears the slogan, "On to Honolulu, y
according to Mr.. McCullagh.
AS a result of limited stocks and the
export demand of apples for Denmark
and the Scandinavian countries, Mr.
McCullagh says spectators are max
ing bids with unprecedented activity
for this season of the year. In numer-
Gus instances buyers sell to other buy.
ers at a slight profit. No price limit
has been fixed by the north European
countries, and the frenzied speculation
results from dreams Of profit on this
outlet.
Mr.. McCullagh reports that the AS
sociation on some of its late sales sold
fruit in carload quantities for S3.S5 and
$4 per box:
Zone of the most gratifying things
| met with while away" said Mr..
McCullagh, was the compliments we
had on our pears. Our practice of
having pears hauled directly from the
trees to the cold storage plants and
then packed under refrigeration is a
winner. A dealer of eastern Canada
held carload of our Bartletts in stor.
age for five weeks after their arrival
and they were sold in excellent condi-
tion. Heretofore we have been told
that we could not get our Bartletts
east Of Omaha.
At former conventions of this ma
ture," he continued, at has always
been the salesmanager task to spend
most of his time ironing out bitches
and difficulties with his customers.
only had one experience of this kind
while at Chicago, and this resulted
from our inability to ship the man all
the fruit he wanted. 1t was a remark.
able convention and the entire trade is
sanguine for future prosperity"