The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-08-24
Paid Only Cent a Pound for
Fruit City Consumers
Pay 10 Cents or More
PRICE DOES NOT
PAY PICKING COST
City Dealer Says New York Apples Are
Not Much Used for Eating-Western
Apples More Uniformly Graded and
Less Waste Because Standardized. j

Less Waste Because Standardized.
NEW YORK, Aug. 24-While con-
sumers in this city continue to pay fancy
prices for apples, upstate fruit growers
have complained to market officials here
that the price offered them by the deal
ers is not sufficient to cover the expenses
of picking. Upstate growers assert that
the apple industry in this state, by far
the greatest apple-growing state in the
union, is being seriously threatened on
account of the low prices offered by the
dealers, who, in turn, exact fancy prices
from their customers.
Commissioner of Public Markets Ed
win j.. O'Malley a few days ago received
a telegram from growers at Morton, \.
Y, in which an appeal was made that
something be done to assure a better
price to the producers and at the same
time save the apple crop for the consum-
ers. The telegram was signed by Frank
NJ. Bradley, president, and Seth j.. I.
Bush, secretary, of the New York Fed
Grafton of agriculture. 1t read:
Partners of New York state have 40
600 carloads of apples to sell, the finest
ever grown. Approximately 1000 cars
ready to ship now. The price offered
the grower, only one cent a pound or
$50 a barrel, win not pay picking ex-
pense. Do your people in New York
want any of this fruit? Unless something
can be done 10 increase the demand and
thereby secure for the grower a market
for his fruit and price that will cover
cost Of production, there will probably
be a couple of million bushels of fruit
wasted in this state.
"A remedy must be found for a con-
dition which gives the producer one cent
and charges the consumer 25 cents. We
also nave pears, plums and peaches.
Can your department of markets slim
ulate the demand for fruit by giving the
people of New York city the facts?"
Peter H. Amor, president of the
New York Retail Grocers' association,
expressed surprise when he learned that
the upstate growers had so many APP
pies ready for shipment, as indicated IN
the telegram to Mr.. O'Malley. lie sad
that most of the apples which have been
received here this season from upstate
have been of inferior quality, though
some selected grades are now coming IN.
He said that the hand picked apples sell
at wholesale for $50 to $500 for a
bushel hamper of fifty pounds. These APP
pies, he said, retail at 10 cents a pound
or three pounds for % cents. He SAID
that he did not know of any section OF
the city where these apples are offered
at more than 10 cents a pound.
Mr.. Amor said that he saw peddlers az
- - InnNl n+rnnL Sat
urday selling eight and ten pounds of APP
.ples for % cents. These were the av-
erage apples that come from upstate,
lie said, and are probably those that fall
from the tree and deteriorate very rap
idly. This grade of apples, he said, can
not be handled in the stores, but can be
sold by peddlers who get rid of them
in one day.
The New York state apples now on
the market, Mr.. Amor said, are not used
very much for eating purposes. The eat
ing apples, he said, come from the West
and are handled on a margin OF about
cent an apple. The margin is less on
this class of fruit, he said, because there
is virtually no waste, as all this west
orn fruit is standardized. In this state
the apples on top are almost invariably
superior in quality to those on the lower
layers.
New York state. it is estimated. will
produce upward of one-ffth of all the
apples grown in the United States tins
year. Arrivals Of APPLES in this city from
all sections, including points outside OF
the state, up to last Tuesday, were 3,262
cars, as compared with 2.664 cars for the
same period last year. Notwithstanding
the big supply on the market, and the
still greater quantity awaiting shipment.
the prices to the consumer continued
very high. An instance of the high
prices 10 the consumer is shown by the
statement of Dir. Robert Grimshaw that
nrior to his Sandwich men, demonstra.
tion last week apples that cost the dealer
| % cents a pound were retailing at i
cer'a a pound. Later they were reduced
- 10 cents a pound, which, he remarked
was still entirely too much. In other sec
tious they are selling at even higher
prices.
The total apple crop for the Unite'
States for commercial purposes for l92
was estimated by the United States de
rartment of agriculture to be 4,O0o,00
barrels more than LAST year.