California Methods in Colorado.

Progress, Volume V, Issue 12, 1 October 1910, Page 4

California Methods in Colorado.

It is only in the last five years that the association has gone after the trans-Mis-souri market in a big way. Indeed, several years of experimenting and. education were necessary before growers learned how to pick and pack fruit for long-dis-tance shipment. It was Manager Moore's idea that Grand Valley apples, peaches and pears should be sold in substantially the same way that oranges and lemons are sold by the California Fruit Growers' Exchange. To accomplish that result careful^ packing and grading and rigid inspection were necessary. One of the association's first moves was to discard barrels. For one thing it is very difficult to inspect a barrel of apples, while the contents of a box can be easily inspected by opening a side. Again, boxes give the grocer a small unit to handle, and experience has shown that a great many families will take a whole box of apples when they would not take a whole barrel. The association introduced boxed apples into the Eastern and Southern markets — meeting, of course, a vast deal of opposition from conservatives who wanted their apples in barrels simply because their fathers' apples had always been in barrels.

For handling trans-Missouri business the association opened an office in Omaha. The reputation of its fruit is now so well established that practically all apples are sold before they are put on the ears, by forward contracts specifying that so many cars of a given variety and grade are to be delivered at a stipulated price. In the case of peaches and pears the association or its agent at Omaha, endeavours to find a buyer at a satisfactory price before the car reaches the latter point. If a sale is not made the car is sent on to some Eastern auction market where conditions seem to be most ; favourable. In each of the large markets the association has its own representative to look after every car, disposing of it by private sale, or, if put up at auction, seeing that it receives proper treatment.

To improve the quality and pack of the fruit has been a foremost object of the association ever since it was. formed. Early in the spring it sends out a circular letter to growers urging the necessity of pruning the orchards, and it employs an expert to instruct new members in the best methods of pruning. A little later the association sends out a letter advising orehardists to spray for certain insects, and telling them the best way to do it. An expert, employed by the association, will visit any member's orchard and give instruction in spraying. Again, after the fruit has formed, the association sends a circular instructing members to thin their fruit, .' so that the trees will develop nothing but large-sized specimens.