The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1919-10-09
APPLE ROW Is
BUSY PLACE
THESE DAYS
prorv Available Foot of Ware
house Space is Filled with
Boxes of Apples ~-
WORKING ON THE WINESAPS
,f weather Behaves and Cars Keep
Coming Shippers Say they will
Go Over the Top r. s..

With the Jonathans, Rome Beauties,
Malicious, and odd lots of Staymans,
Winter Bananas and other varieties
out of the way, growers, pickers,
hackers and shippers have settled
donw to a steady grind of Winesaps,
which comprises the big end of Ken
,newick's apple crop. From orchard
to railway freight yard everything is
hustle and bustle and Kennewick's
apple handling facilities are being
taxed to the limit every day. With
few exceptions, every available foot
Of warehouse space in the city is filled
with boxes of apples, packed or un-
packed.
A visit to Kennewick's rapidly
growing "Produce Row. today re-
yealed the fact that in spite of the
rush the apple crop is being handled
with dispatch and unless there is a
sudden heavy freeze or an acute car
shortage the apples will move out to
market without loss to either grower
or shipper.
The visit also revealed the fact that
Kennewick's fruit payroll is no in
significant item. A count of those
who are variously employed at the
eight packing houses in the. city and
the Bly, Y and Highlands Fruit COM
pany warehouses at Vista, showed 255
employees, while down at the Church
Mfg. company's plant 30 more are
employed for the purpose of convert
the Gull apples into cider. These 2S5
people are receiving approximately
$1,000 day, or a monthly payroll OF
about $4,000. This includes only
those who handle the apples after they
have been unloaded at the warehouses.
The payroll would probably be more
than doubled if there were added to
it the hundreds of pickers in the or
ehards and the truck drivers who are
keeping the orchard district roads hot
from morning until night.
The biggest crew and the greatest
congestion is to be found at the ware
house of he Wenatchee Valley Fruit
Exchange, where 64 people are en-
ployed and two grading machines are
in operation. The Exchange has
doubled it's plant twice since it built
last spring and today every available
foot of floor space is occupied. IF
we can get the cars we are going to
get by in fine shape" said Manager
VIM. Green. "We are greatly handi-
capped for room and at times we are
forced to operate with a short crew
owing to an insufficient supply of ex-
perienced help. We are going to get
thru this year with local help, but
THIS is the last year that Kennewick
can hope to do so. With our rapidly
increasing tonnage we are going to
nave to depend to large extent upon
the so-called fruit tramp to get our
1ruit ready for market"
The Fruitgrowers' association has
2 total of So employed at its city ware
mouse and another crew of Is working
at the Vista house. 1t has the largest
grading machine in he district. "Ev-
erything is going just like clockwork" !"
eald MIR. German, the packing super
intendent. "Our graders and pack
ers have become accustomed to the
place and are hitting a pace that is
going to put us over the top in fine
shape. We are operating the largest
machine in the Yakima Valley and
In pinch we can put 5000 boxes over
it in a day. The order we received
to remove spray deposits from the ap.
pies caused us a little Inconvenience al
first, but that isn't bothering US any
more. All of our workers, pickers
assorters and packers wear canvas:
gloves and by the time the apples
reach the boxes they are shiny enough
to satisfy any Bostonian." =. 3,
In addition to the shipping houses
there are two other packing houses il
the city. Perry s. Combellic hav
,-ohorise of The Pro
duce Company and are packing o
contract for a number OF the large
Independent growers. s = ", Levi v
has rented the old st. Paul & Tacom