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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1911)
TIIE OMATIA SUNDAY BEE: JUNE 11, 1911. I) Big Red Apple Means Big Balance in the Bank Nowadays t IT -l'y fC '- V n 1 , W' v. . w (Copyright, 1911, by Pr&nk O. Carpenter.) A8HINOTON, D. C. (Special Correspond ence of The Bee.' I write of the Big Red Apple. It is creating almost aa much trouble for us as did that into which Mother Eve, at the advice of the snake, sank her pearly teeth when she lost us the Garden of Eden. It is more precious than the three golden apples which grew In the garden of Hesperides, and for which Hercules up held the globe on his shoulders when he sent old Atlas . to get them. That was the second time that the apple upset the world. A third was when Juno, Venus and , Jlinerva contended as to their beauty for the golden 1 apple offered by Paris, the grafter, who, being bribed by Venus with Helen of Troy, thus brought about the. I long ten-year war which laid that city in ashes. ; Big Money in Apple. Even the Bible speaks of apples of gold In pitchers bf silver. Well, that 1b what we are having la some parts of our country. The apple crop Is revolution izing whole districts. It has lifted the prices of lands o the clouds and has made it possible for the clod hopper to walk upon velvet. What would you think of a country where nearly fevery farmer owns his automobile, where his house Is lighted by electricity and he has water on tap; where cores of families go every year to southern Califor nia to get away from the cold, and where you cannot Jthrow a stone without striking a man who has money to the bank? That, I am told at the Department of 'Agriculture, is the condition of half a dozen different districts in the Pacific northwest. Take the Hood river 'valley in Oregon, where the apples and pumpkins are of about the same size! Or chard land there is worth from $500 to $1,000 an. acre, and orchards already -set out will bring $3,000 and upward an acre. Said one of the department of ficials to me: "I was recently talking with an orchardlst who had ten acres of bearing trees in one of the best districts of Washington. I asked him what his land was worth. Ha replied: " 'It ought to bring me In at least $10,000.' " 'Well,' said I, after thinking a moment, ' I don't know that that Is too much. You have ten acres, and that would be Just $1,000 an acre.' " 'But I mean $10,000 per acre,' said the man. 'It will bring me a good income on that and leave a fair Inking fund.' And thereupon he took out his pencil iaad showed me that he was making a big percentage ton his own valuation. A Farmer's Utopia, "The Paclflo northwest Is the Utopia of the farmer," said another of the. agricultural explorers. "The apple growers are mostly educated men and the ocial conditions are high. In Hood River, which is a town of 6,000, there is a University club, to which belong 150 college graduates. North Yakima looks tor all the world like a New England city, and its bouses are more artistic than those of the east The Wenatchee valley is a great farm town covering thou sands of acres, divided up Into patches of five and ten acres of orchards. Each patch has its house, which is equipped with electricity and lighted by a common plant. Every home has runnning water and Ik. telephone, and scores of the farmers own their own motor cars. "The bare land in the Wenatchee valley Is worth 500 and upward an acre, and the orchards in bear ing yield $500 or more to the acre a year. "Near southern Washington a crop of eight acres was sold on the trees for $15,000, and the purchaser did the picking and marketing. They had an apple ahow at Spokane laBt fall where they gave away prizes Which aggregated $20,000, the first prize being, a sweepstake of $1,000. At that show there were dis plays from thlrty-slj different districts In Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and M'ontana, and the ap ples were shown in all sorts of packages, from the car load to the box. They sent one trainload of the ex hibits from there to Chicago. It went by express and It carried Just 1,000,000 apples. Our Best Apple Lands. Where are our best apple lands? I have asked this question of several of the lead ing pomologlsts of the Agricultural department, and w have gone over the country with a map laid be fore us. Take first the Pacific northwest. The most famous regions are pockets such as the Wenatchee Valley and the Hood River country. They have not a Urge area, but the land has been divided up into mail patches, ten acres being enough for any one man to handle. The Yakima region is larger, and there are other extensive tracts in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. There is a big apple country in Cali fornia a little south of San Francisco, from whose port, Wataonvllle, are shipped more apples than from i ' 4 A - -ym Wr: ' bai SM M - !...''- 7 .ft Wv 11 4 L - eeL. r r- V z.a... .....jr. ' a"ss." i; v ' 4 i I HUH a- 4- Sir' si-'r-xrik- M) -mm UPIMVPZ1, 1 . y " f-"iW iJ! w5-v mi VOL '5 urnmm the east I have myself shipped 300 barrels in one car this 100,000 carloads would equal 20,000,000 barrels of apples. This is the potential product ten years from now of the Pacific northwest, and that part of the country produces a comparatively small portion of our total crop. Now, within the last ten years the apple crop of the United States has ranged from 22,000,000 to 60, 000,000 barrels. We had 22,000.000 barrels In 1909. and during the last five years the average has been about 2 8,000,000 barrels. The big yields were all during the earlier part of the decennial period, the statistics of which the Department of Agriculture con siders unreliable. At the estimate I have given for the Pacific north west the crop for that region in 1921 would be almost equal to the total crop for the United States for 1909. and If a proportionate increase goes on in the other known apple regions there may be an enormous glut in the market. This is a possible situation which the present investor in apple lands should consider. Even If the 60,000,000 barrels were correct, the product ten years from now, supposing the orchards Just planted come Into bearing, will probably be far in excess of that figure, Co-Operation and Advertising. any ether port la the world. The moat of the north western appTfes go by rail to Chicago, New York and New England, and not a few are sent across the con tinent by rail and thence by steamer to London. It surprised me to learn that one of the most profitable apple regions is in Colorado. It lies in the western part of the state, on the other side of the Rockies, and quite a distance from Denver. The climate there is such that it has bad crops when those of the northwest have failed. Coming further east, there Is a big apple region in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. The Ozark, moun tain country in many years has led the United States In the production of the big red apple, and there are large orchards in Kansas and Nebraska and also in the statespa the other aide of flhe Mississippi river. Just now some of the most successful orchards of the country are in western Michigan. They run up along the coast of the lake and extend some distance back into the interior. I know of one agricultural scientist who has an orchard of 200 trees there. It was planted by his father some thirty odd years ago. That orchard brought In $3,500 this year, making a net profit of about $600 per acre. V Apples In New York and New England. The old reliable apple country of the United States Is northern New York. It has been producing large crops of fine fruit for years, and with modern spray ing and improved cultivation It is now yielding more than ever. Representative apple buyers of the coun try have annual meetings at Niagara Falls, where they arrange . the management of this crop, and whether it Is big or little largely affects the market prices all over the country. New England is raising a great deal of apples. This Is especially so of southeastern Maine and some parts of Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. The most of the apples from that region are Bald wins. Among the new movements there Is the reno vation of the old orchards after methods laid down by the Department of Agriculture. A large number of abandoned farms have been made profitable by the rejuvenation of the old apple orchards through trim ming and cultivation. there !s fo Its fcegtnnlng, but t'ner are Betting trat tree by the hundreds of thousands and lands are Jumping in value. The country is only about six years bid as a marketing region. It was in 1905 or 1906 that the commercial orchards began to bear. Since then the bank deposits have trebled, and this last fall- that county alone shipped about 1,000,000 bushels of ap ples. The apple lands are far cheaper than those of the west, selling for from $75 to $200 per acre, the latter price being usually for land on which trees have been planted. The same might be said of an extensive region of apple country In the mountains of West- Virginia, where large orchards have been set out and from where annual shipments of many carloads are made. There are big orchards In western Maryland and in southern Pennsylvania, regions in which thousands of trees are now being planted. Money in Southern Orchards. The profits of the southern orchards are so far nothing like those of the far west, but the scientific fruit men tell me that the lands in many of the east ern sections are Just as suited to apples and that proper cultivation, spraying, packing and marketing should make them pay quite as well. Many of the western fruit growers realize this, and I know person ally a number of orchardists who have sold out their lands In Washington and Idaho and are now buying southern lands and setting them out. One such man recently bought over 200 acres, right on the railroad, within a half mile or so of the fine old town of Leesburg. He paid something like $50 or $60 an acre, and he expects to raise as good apples within about forty miles of the national capital as can be raised In Colorado or Washington. That man bought apple lands in Oregon for $3 00 an acre and sold them for $700, Another young fellow of the Leesburg neighborhood has bought 360 acres upon which he is starting with an orchard of 6,000 trees, one-half of the profits of which he expects to give to foreign mis sions. Wiat One Girl Did. There Is an Albemarle pippin orchard on the Fair fax estate, formerly owned by President Monroe, that Is paying- exceedingly well, and near there Is a little On the other hand, by co-operation and advertls . . , . 'fh. -nft t U1 " tag and the proper handling of the crop there is no a wa vne tu w v v bi ccn w uii.u uau ucuu Du ncu managed by a young lady farmer that It Is an object lesson for miles around. In the latter case the trees were set out in 1890, twenty-one years ago, and it was sixteen years after that before they began to give crops commercially profitable. One can plant 600 trees on twelve acres of ground and have room to spare.' This Is what that girl did with her trees. In 1906 her net profits were $1,612; In 1907, $862; In 1908, $1,227; in 1909, $3,248, and in 1910 she has gross receipts ofover $5,000, yielding her a net profit of 13,862. Moreover, her trees have begun to show what they will do and there is no reason why her crop should not be greatly increased as the years go by. Will the Apple Market Be Glutted Stories similar to these are known to all who have any acquaintance with the apple regions of the United States. They are founded on present condi tions and are the cause of the enormous extent to which new orcharrds are being planted all over the country. Many of the government clerks at Wash ington are Investing la orchard schemes. Some of the fruit experts of the Agricultural department have their independent orchards, and not a few of Uncle Sam's employes have bone into the business and are making good. At the same time apple lands are being exploited as orange lands were some years ago, and syndicates are formed to manage orchards at a fixed price per acre or tree. The planting is very extensive and this is especially so in the Pacific northwest and In Vir ginia, West Virginia and Maryland. It is also true of the other apple regions, although to a minor extent. Last year, I am told, the shipments of apples from the Washington, Oregon and Idaho regions amounted to 10,000 carloads, and moreover when the trees that are now being planted come Into bearing, say ten years from now, there will' be from that region more than 100,000 carloads. The most of these shipments go in boxes, but I venture a carload of barrels would contain about the same number of apples. At 200 barrels to the car, which is an average shipment in Apple Pie Ridge. There is a region la Virginia known as Apple Pie Ridge. It Is in the Appalachian mountains, and I shall dignify the whole of that system by that name. Apples can be raised in selected spots through that whole range, running from New England as far south as Georgia There are fine apple lands in the Alle ghenles, and thousands of acres of trees are now being sot out in different parts of the Blue Ridge. In Albe marie county, about Charlottesville,, where Thomas Jefferson lived, they raise the famous Albemarle pip pins, which bring from $5 to $10 a barrel, the greater part of them being shipped to England. That was the favorite apple of Queen Victoria. King Edward ate it before going to bed, and King George haa been brought up upon it. They are now using Albemarle pippins In Windsor palace, and I have bought them in Covent Garden market at something like a shilling a pound.' This apple is fastidious as to soil and climate. It grows best in the coves of the moun tains, and of, late it has been thriving in the Shenan doah valley. I know of men there who are netting from $10,000 to $20,000 a year from their pippin trees, and there 'are numerous farmers who make more out of their orchards than from wheat, corn or live stock. In the Valley of Virginia. Another favorite apple la the York Imperial, and others are tSe Grimes' Golden, winesaps and mam moth black twigs. Take Frederick county, Virginia, of which Winchester Is the capital. The ax pie Industry Mystery of Four Vanished Fortunes W 'D'-fr a huge inheritance syndicate has been ITH view to tracing lost for centuries, a formed in Cologne and has retained soma prominent German lawyers. Several members of the Retxhstag are connected with the scheme, according to a recent dispatch to the Philadelphia Inquirer, which is built up around the vanished estate of Baron von Oruhohn, a field marshal in the Dutch army, who died 234 years ago. which is built up around the vanished estate of Zaron von Oruhohn, a field marshal in the Dutch army, who died 234 years ago. This search has its counterpart in a series of Bavarian mysteries dating still further back, and curiously enough also dealing with Dutch fortunes left to German relatives. In the latter case the de scendants of four separate families have Joined bands in an effort to acquire the fortunes left to them. Here are the main facta upon which the various claim ants hope to establish their right to the vanished $17,600,000. In 1636 George Schleded, a German emigrant from the Moselle country, died, leaving about one and three-quarter million dollars to his family. In 1664 Andreas Joas, Schleder's son-in-law, died leaving $3,600,000 te relatives in Bavaria. Ia 1707 Johana Joas, a nephew of Andreas, died bequeathing nearly a million dollars year previous. y a to the same Bavarian family. A Spanish governor named Jais died at Antwerp, leaving five millions to relatives in Bavaria. Finally Joseph Pongrats who, like the two Joases and Schleder, lived and died at Amsterdam, left $7,500,000 to descendants at Schausen, Germany. These fortunes have gone astray. That they, once existed is beyond all doubt The heirs of Johann Joas are ready to show that an Aosburg lawyer testified to the arrival of the million on May 2, 1785. The hopeful ones in the case of Jais hold a docu ment registering the banking of their ancestor's fortune in an Augsburg house In 1786. The benefici aries under the Pongrantz will have even received mall cash advances from this fortune during the centuries which have lapsed. Once, for instance, a lucky descendant actually succeeded In obtaining a quarter of a million dofars. This was in 1791. As recently as 1865 in Augsburg banker named Haider contested on his deathbed that he had made his for tune out of the missing Pongrats millions that the money was in fact lying in his safes. The would-be benefiolaries put forth every effort to obtain their due, but In vain. The Haider business has lately been amalgamated with the Bank of Dresden, and the descendants are now suing the latter concern. doubt that the United States will consume or export all the apples that are now being planted. This is one of the big works which Uncle Sam is doing. One branch of the bureau of pomology Is devoted to it. It has its agents at home and abroad, and its inspectors are instructing the people. Our export of apples haa already reached 1,000,000 barrels, and at reduced prices and with more care in packing it can be greatly Increased. What we need Is the same kind of work that has been done by southern California as to the orange crop. The organizations there have so sys tematized the shipping and marketing that oranges are cheaper than apples in most parts of the United States. I dropped Into the Center market, here in Washington, yestercay and asked the price of some No. 1 Wenatchee apples. I was told that they were 75 cents a dozen, or more than 6 cents apiece. I then picked up a navel orange which was larger than any of the apples and was told that it was selling for 35 cents a dozen, or less than 8 cents apiece. One can by oranges and bananas in any town and in almost every grocery store in the country, and there are many regions where oranges are sold and apples are not. This is merely a matter of prices, handling and mar keting. The apple will keep longer than the orange, the latter being a perishable fruit. Nevertheless, the apple Is the dearer and the harder to get. ' Said one of Uncle Sam's fruit experts: "When every family In the United States classes the baked apples as one of its breakfast dishes, and lets it crowd out some of the cereals, there will be no trouble about the consumption of the apple crop." Grading and Foreign Competition, "If our apple Industry is to be permanently suc cessful," continued this man, "we muBt have rigid in spection and absolute honesty as to grading and mar-) keting. As it Is now there are too many tricks in the trade. In the northwest this is prevented largely by co-operation and state Inspection. If a man ships poor apples or grades poor ones as good ones, his apples are thrown out by the shippers and he may lose a whole carload by a bad box or so. In Canada the government Inspects all the fruit, not only that which goes abroad, but that sold in the local markets, and the man" who sells No. 2s aa No. Is, or culls as good apples is liable to a fine. There are fixed ways of packing and grading, and the inspectors go from orchard to orchard and report. Stovepipe Packing. "Have you ever heard of stopepipe packing?" this man went on. "That has been done with some of our apples which have been shipped te England and Germany, and has greatly Injured the trade. It has also hurt the sale of our apples at home." "What do you mean by that?" I asked. "I mean the laying three or four rows of fine red or yellow apples on the bottom of the barrel, fitting them in so that they look like fancy No. Is, and then placing inside the barrel a pasteboard cyl inder, which would hold about a bushel or one-third of the barrel. This Is so set that good apples can be fitted In around It and when that is done the cylinder is filled with culls. It does not come within five or six Inches of the top of the barrel. After filling, the pasteboard is pulled out and the top is faced up with fine apples. In other words yon have a barrel of what corresponds to the quotation. "A goodly apple rotten at the core." And moreover the rot cannot be discovered with out emptying the barrel. I would say that there la no use In attempting to play such tricks upon the London market aa It is now constituted, for the British pour out a sample .barrel from every shipment before any bids are made." "RANK a CARPENTER.