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Show n CALIFORNIA NOTICING UTAH COMPETITION. California is beginning to feel the effects of the rapid advance that Utah and Colorado fruit interests arc mak-ing. mak-ing. This is plainly showiiMu an ar-tide ar-tide which C. E. Thurston", New York representative for the California Fruit Distributor contributes to the Cnli-fornia Cnli-fornia Fruit Grower on the season of 1908. This paper also" gives sonic interesting facts concerning the reasons rea-sons for low prices on fruit for the last season. His article follows: The decidious season of 1908 has broken all previous records as to quality, and the quantity and amount of fruit shipped and marketed from the coast, being far in excess of last year, the California Fruit Distributor's Distribu-tor's bulletin, showing a total of 12,- 917 cars moved, as compared with 7,491 cars in 1907. Heavy shipments continued late in the season. As an example, 79 cars were shipped on October Oc-tober 31, as compared with but 29 cars same date in 1907. As usual, the bulk of the crop was marketed1 through the distributors. The decision of some of the members of the California Fruit Distributors to consign their fruit to different receivers re-ceivers in the various markets is to be regretted. The advantages gained gain-ed through the highly efficient organization organ-ization of the California Fruit Distributors Dis-tributors was thus largely nullified through the shipments 'being marketed market-ed by conflicting interests in eastern markets, and as result defeated the primary object of the Distributors that of being a complete marketing oVganization. Such an organization is absolutely necessary to take care of California's constantly growing output"; A comparison with past sca- - son's shows an utter absence of gluts and oveYorowding of auction mar- kets, and bettor service and results 1 lo .shipper ami growers, while the lack of harmony among receivers this yqar and knowledge of their intended offerings from day lo day at times resulted in overloading. There is no doubt but that this tcndcn'SyJias been thdfau&c of serious disaffection MJlfunong certain members of dhcCali-Wmf dhcCali-Wmf fornia Fruit Distributors, .and, carried car-ried to its logical conclusion, might result in the discmbcrment gftuthat body, a result which, needless to say would be a serious blow to. the in-d in-d us try. Thcv necessity for a complete and harmonious organization has never been more, apparent than at the present pre-sent time on account of the growing competition (romi the northwestern points as well 'as Colorado and Utah. Shipments of dccidious fruits have shown a remarkable increase during the past five years, the low price ol land1, favorable conditions, governing ji irrigation projects and constantly im- proving railroad service attracting growers from all parts of the country. coun-try. Results on Coast shipments this season, while decidedly not as satis- I factory as last season, were not as bad as might have been expected, all things considered. The widespread , business depression, felt more parti cularly in the cast, was reflected in the fruit trade, in addition to which California fruits were forced to mcec the competition of some of the heaviest heav-iest crops ever moved in the East I Georgia peach shipments especially being the heaviest in the history of ithc state. Shipments of early varieties from i the coast were decidedly heavier than during the preceding two seasons, i there being 208J4 cars of cherries 1 as compared with 98 cars in 1907, and 150 in 1906, while 231 cars of apri- cots comprized the heaviest movement move-ment of this variety since 1905, there being but 71 cars in 1907 and 16 cars , iii 1906. Results on cherries were, as a rule satisfactory, all things considered, con-sidered, but prices ruled low on apri cots owing to the continuous heavy offerings of early Georgia peaches. Qplifonvia peaches also failed to I make a favorable showing, as this has been a record breaking peach season in sections both East and 11 SSt, Colorado and Utah contributing contribu-ting a heavy movement during September Sept-ember and October, and' interfering materially with tht late hipments of this variety from California. Bar'tlclt pears were in very heavy rccciqt during the season, shipment from California amounting to 2,701 14 cars, as compared with but 1,039 cars Inst season. Quality and condition during the height of the season show cd a wide variation, inferior and was-ty was-ty stock naturally showing poor re-suits, re-suits, particularly at times when ou market was overloaded with heavy "offerings. Growers may ppssiWj'Iearn in time to cji rniruft csca1 o uya n d scarred scar-red pears, particularly during seasons of bumper crops, as it is difficult lo obtain ood results even under the most favorable conditions. This applies ap-plies tpothcr varieties of fruit as well showing the proportionate increase over last year of other varieties, were heavy and notable fry the late movement of Tokays, liberal quantities quan-tities of which arrived in November. Prices on well colored, second grapes have been well maintained with the exception of a period of gluts in early ear-ly October, when our market was forced to take large quantities of this varict'. As an example, on October 12, 47 cars of Colorado fruit were sold here, the majority of which contained con-tained Tokays. For some unexplained unexplain-ed reason, a great many of the Tokays To-kays from the Lodi section have arrived ar-rived showing mould, probably due to climate conditions, and in some cases careless packing. The Department of Agriculture has been carrying on a scries of experiments this season on grapes shipped from Lodi and undoubtedly un-doubtedly their report will be of interest in-terest and value lo growers and ship-1 ship-1 ers in general. |
