The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1921-09-08
LONDON APPLE MAN
AFTER OREGON FRUIT
(From the Oregonian)


Seeking an outlet from Portland by
the water route for his shipments of
apples which last year amounted to
more than 1870 carloads from the
Northwest, Sam Birch, senior head
salesman of 7. j. Poupart, the largest
firm Of fruit statesmen in Great Britain,
is making his headquarters in Portland
for few days, contracting with grow
ers of Hood River and this vicinity and
also in the Yakima country.
This is the first year that the British
fruit concern will ship the apple crop
by water direct to Liverpool and Lon
don. Heretofore all of the fruit pur-
chased here has been sent by rail to
New York and handled through the
New York brokers.
az am attempting to arrange for the
direct shipment of the fruit either
from Portland or Seattle" said Mr..
Birch, "and it depends entirely upon
the cold-storage facilities at the ports
which place | will select to establish
our branch office.
Last year Mr.. Birch purchased 81
carloads of Oregon apples alone for his
firm and even though the branch office
is established at Seattle, he states
that the Oregon apples will be shipped
direct from Portland providing he can
get the space and cold storage facili-
ties on a direct boat to Great Britain.
He is eager to obtain as many carloads
of the famous Hood River Newtown
Pippins as possible, declaring that this
apple is the best seller on the London
markets.
"Oregon apples bring the best price
of any we get from any section of the
country" said Mr.. Birch, land we
will contract for all the Newtown Pip
pins that we can get. Although we
raise quite a crop of apples in the
British Isles they cannot compare ia
vorably with yours in size or in color,
although | do believe that they are
equal in flavor. "
Owing to the long dry spell in Eng
land this year the crop of apples there
will be very small, according to Mr..
Birch. This has been the driest sum-
mer season experienced in England in
AZ years andssfor 72 days there was not
a drop of rain, which is rather unusual
for the country. The firm for which
Mr.. Birch is buying handles only the
wholesale product. A popularity OF
the buying public of England was cited
by him. He explained that the re-
tailers there have no demand for ap-
Piles by the box. practically all the
sales to consumers being made by the
pound. The T. j. Poupart concern sells
to the retailers by the box lots and
message received by Mr.. Birch Satur-
day stated that shipment of Califor-
MIA Gravensteins which had just been
received in London brought from % to
q shillings a box.
In the opinion of Mr.. Birch, shipping
the apples by boat direct to England
will be a great advantage over the
system of shipping by rail and hand
ling the fruit through the New York
commission brokers. In this manner
it will minimize the handling of the
boxes and will cut the cost Of shipping
across the Atlantic.
The cost of shipping last year
amounted to 81 GO for each box. This
did not include the cost of handling or
the cost of the fruit from the growers
here. Mr.. Birch believes that the cost
this year will be cut to from Sl.24 to
81. 80 a box and there will he no addi-
tional fee for handling except for the
small cost at the docks here in loading
the fruit.
The London concern handles apples
the year round on the English mar
kets. The crop there is ready about
the first of August and as soon as the
English apples have disappeared the
shipments of apples begin to arrive
from the western part of the United
States. This shipment keeps coming
until the latter part of April in the
spring, when the Australian fruit be-
gins to come in, and this keeps up un-
til the apple crop is ready in the isl
ands again, about the first of August.