The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1921-12-22
BOXED APPLES NEED
MORE ADVERTISING

The recent meeting of the Washing
ton State Horticultural Society held IN
| Spokane was we'll represented by fruit
growers of the four Northwest states
and British Columbia. the producers OF
boxed apples. The discussion brought
out many things of interest to grow
ers, especially along lines of increasing
the consumption of our product and
it's accompanying return. 1t was the
unanimous opinion of all growers pres
ent that the time is now ripe for the
formation of an organization of North
west producers whereby ways ana
means NAV be devised which VIII en-
able them to more extensively adver-
tise and distribute their rapidly IN
creasing product, the Northwest boxed
apple. With this idea in mind com
mittee representing the Interested
states was appointed. This committee
made up for the most part of growers,
was as follows: j. l.. Dumas, Day
ton, Wash. w. H. Wieks, Idaho; G. l..
Shovel, Montana; A. F. Barss, Van
couver, b. c. ; +. A. Wiggins, Wash
ington, and Leroy Childs. of Oregon.
The duties of this committee are to
place before the various shippers and
growers, both private and cooperative
organizations, the purposes OF this
movement, they, as growers and snip
pers, to send representatives to the
first meeting on organization which IS
to be held in Spokane early in
| February.
1t is not the intention or purpose OF
this organization to undertake the
marketing of this ouput of the North
west or tossdisrupt or change in any
way present marketing organizations.
but to develop an organization of fruit
growers and dealers who will standard
ize their product with reference to
quality and grade and to finance a
project which will permit extensive
national and international advertising
of our one great commodity, the
Northwest box apple.
The needs for concerted effort in the
proper advertising of this commodity
are many and are becoming more ap'
| parent each year. A glance at grow
ers retnrns which have been received
during the past few years show that
some radical changes and improve
ments must take place in order to pre-
searve this great industry and place
it upon a profitable basis. The causes
for the present existing conditions can
be largely placed upon the shoulders OF
the fruit growers themselves ana can
| be largely corrected by them II they
are willing to do so. Our apple ton
mage has increased tremendously dur
! ing the past five years. We have paid
particular attention to cultural prac
! tices and have developed quality and
quantity production to the highest
standard existing in the world.
The fruits of this effort are partlcu-
larly gratifying and we find the North
west producing 40 per cent OF the entire
production of the country. But what
! has been done to coordinate this pro-
duction with systematic advertising
and distribution? Nothing. On the
contrary the little advertising that has
been done has had tendency to bring
about competition in box producing
sections, one with another and natur'
al competition in our common market
resulting in injury to all. During the
period of infancy in the box apple in
dustrv this local competition in adver.
tisinP, in quality, and quantity Of out
| putput added vgor to the game today
]
| il is killing IT,.
The correction Of this difficulty rests
largely with US as fruit growers. With
our interests combined and coordinated
i'm a way which will permit of a wider
distribution and consumption brought
! about through channels Of vigorous
advertising we will be able to face the
future with its increasing perplexlties
| in a wav consistent with modern bus
mess practices. The Improvement OF
our present marketing cond tions' as
well as the production OF perfect
product rests with the grower himself.
Collectively great strldes can be made
/ in improving the situation. Acting In
I Idividually we will continue to receive
/ the discouraging returns with which
we are familiar.