THE APPLE BUSINESS.

By J. G. Thompson, of Edwardsville, Kan.

Often the title of a book or essay gives little information as to what will follow, and under "The Apple Business" there are a variety of subjects, on any one of which an essay might be written. In this short paper I shall speak of our foreign markets. A Kansas apple in London is a long way from home. But it is there, and not at all disconcerted by its strange surroundings. What is our apple doing there? Was it imported as a curiosity? Is it there as evidence of some venture or speculation? Neither; it has passed the experimental stage and is on a perfectly legitimate errand. It has gone over for English gold and will send the same back to its Kansas home. Now comes the interesting part, which makes business of the transaction. If profitable, it means prosperity; and a wave of prosperity is what the whole country needs, and when the wave comes there will be a lot of folks who will want to make the inundation permanent. Apples, on arriving in London or Liverpool, are sold at auction on the docks, immediately on arrival, usually in twenty-barrel lots. Of each lot two barrels are opened, one is poured out on a table, and one has the head removed so that the faced end may be seen. This is called a "show," and in the account of sales the "shows" are charged for at the rate of one shilling each.

AMERICAN APPLES ABROAD.

European receivers of American apples, represented by Chas. Forster, 76-78 Park Place, N. Y.

		Ports of Import.
Date.		Figures given represent barrels.
		Liverpool.	London.	Glasgow.	Hamburg.	Various.	Total.
1897.
Aug.	7	168		33			201
"	14	185		47			232
"	21	455		374			829
"	28	1,113		495			1,608
Sept.	4	3,044		580			3,624
"	11	7,605		2,370			9,975
"	18	10,933	70	3,813		143	14,959
"	25	12,960	2,494	6,425	657	250	22,786
Oct.	2	13,286	7,774	5,167	1,804	572	28,603
"	9	16,325	11,252	6,499	3,747	512	28,335
"	16	20,530	5,461	7,473	3,648	322	37,434
"	23	29,381	13,047	8,709	6,391	210	57,738
"	30	26,641	16,055	14,619	8,432	366	66,113
Nov.	6	39,615	9,449	18,897	8,371	1,791	78,123
"	13	33,631	4,338	7,579	6,650	566	52,764
"	20	29,167	11,226	18,288	13,755	1,113	73,549
"	27	26,308	7,169	3,588	7,686	1,886	46,637
Dec.	4	18,091	8,724	3,154	6,597	231	36,797
"	11	14,050	2,469	4,766	3,829	239	25,353
"	18	4,613	2,794	211	1,475	487	9,580
"	25	7,468	2,733	1,106	616	339	12,262
1898.
Jan.	1	11,949	2,196		617	577	15,339
"	8	19,486	9,428	709	2,644	900	33,167
"	15	17,747	11,952	1,450	4,011	5	35,165
"	22	16,332	4,885		1,316	567	23,100
"	29	11,974	5,174	1,539	3,601	142	22,430
Feb.	5	3,546	4,987	417		718	19,668
"	12	12,584	3,709	1,101	673	294	18,361
"	19	12,320	5,160	521		41	18,042
"	25	10,234	4,656	1,353	1,325		17,568
Mar.	5	8,431	3,284	100	505	75	12,395
"	12	9,192	6,389	424	270		16,275
"	19	8,671	5,026	117	160		13,974
"	26	7,747	4,078	381		191	12,397
April	2	9,788	4,187	271		113	14,359
"	9	6,917	8,493	1,192		185	16,787
"	16	5,049	2,091	60		134	7,334
"	23	2,059	2,095				4,154
"	30	543	2,436				2,979
May	7	1,500					1,500
June	11	1,500					1,500
Totals		490,138	198,281	123,828	88,780	12,969	913,996

I have just received the apple catalogue of Woodall & Co., of Liverpool, England, giving a list of sales made by them of 2451 barrels of American apples, from the 3d to the 10th of this month [December, 1897]. This catalogue gives the mark, brand or owner's name on barrel, the name of the variety, condition of fruit, and whether tight or loose in the barrel, the name of the vessel on which the fruit arrived, the point from which it was shipped, and the gross proceeds of the sales of these 2451 barrels—1047 were from Canada and 1404 from the United States. Last year I sold for export 1000 barrels of apples. The buyer told me it was very difficult to carry barreled apples across the water in good condition. And that, owing to the peculiar motion of the ship, apples which were tight when loaded would be loose and bruised on arrival at Liverpool. You may judge of the correctness of this statement when I tell you that, in the account of sales of 153 barrels, 142 are reported as loose and 11 tight. They are not all that bad, for further on 212 are reported as 171 tight and 41 loose. Apples when loose lose from $1 to $1.75 in value; a lot of 12—8 Winesap and 4 York Imperial, loose—were sold for 15s. 3d. or $3.80 per barrel; 43 Winesaps, loose, brought 14s. 9d. or $3.68. Newtown Pippins bring the highest price, ranging from $5 to $9 per barrel.

The apples are mostly from Canada and New York, the varieties being principally Newtown Pippin, Baldwin, Greening, and [Northern] Spy; still I find in the list such familiar names as Ben Davis, Genet, and Winesap. On inquiry, I find the freight from Kansas City to New York is 63¹/₂ cents, and from New York across the water, seventy-five cents per barrel. A report of sales would read something like this: One barrel Ben Davis, $3.80; freight, $1.35; commission, 20 cents; net proceeds, $2.25. This is supposing they should reach the other side loose. If, owing to superior skill in packing, they should reach their destination tight, the net proceeds would be $3 or $3.25. The Liverpool quotation on western Ben Davis, December 11, is $4 to $5 for tight; $3.50 to $4.38 for loose. I speak of one firm only; many others are in the same line.

COMPARISON OF SEASONS, 1881 TO 1898.

	Ports of Export.
	Figures represent barrels.
Date.	New York.	Boston.	Montreal.	Portland.	Halifax and St. Johns.	Philadelphia.	Baltimore.	Newport News.	Norfolk.	Annapolis.
1880-81	599,200	510,300	145,276	39,908	24,250	9,872
1881-82	75,889	65,093	56,433	6,497	13,805					21,535
1882-83	169,570	102,409	64,390	16,890	18,542	3,900				19,893
1883-84	53,048	7,145	7,445	9,811	3,758	325
1884-85	256,314	307,130	84,487	71,460	41,207					8,612
1885-86	466,203	221,724	68,716	87,301	37,982	186				3,161
1886-87	175,595	303,479	106,713	100,569	94,606					26,965
1887-88	275,696	163,916	93,058	25,215	32,652					17,884
1888-89	474,337	382,199	291,307	145,825	94,691	860				18,190
1889-90	169,557	132,589	162,526	122,433	53,627					37,030
1890-91	76,503	23,123	182,095	80,365	89,190
1891-92	537,247	339,964	320,457	163,145	87,379	550	72	1,337	215
1892-93	218,037	204,138	429,243	235,395	116,725
1893-94	29,396	4,796	56,255	49,344	35,058
1894-95	221,398	523,123	273,353	155,878	264,410
1895-96{	230,705	84,771	128,027	141,955	165,797
1895-96{	[A]13,610		[A]1,861
1896-97	570,327	1,015,029	700,274	221,350	409,733	3,133
1897-98	361,894	176,322	163,313	126,261	82,208	3,943	55

	Ports of Import.
	Figures represent barrels.
Date.	Liverpool.	London.	Glasgow.	Hamburg.	Various.	Total.
1880-81	839,444	177,936	216,391		95,036	1,328,806
1881-82	133,784	46,147	59,266		55	239,252
1882-83	253,432	46,975	81,269		13,318	395,594
1883-84	46,661	4,843	29,685		343	81,532
1884-85	491,898	123,081	137,631		16,590	769,210
1885-86	537,695	147,102	176,445		24,031	885,273
1886-87	468,553	187,840	138,756		12,775	807,924
1887-88	346,557	104,072	139,517		18,275	608,421
1888-89	790,502	279,374	272,068		64,465	1,407,409
1889-90	418,850	128,248	116,449		14,115	677,762
1890-91	252,548	116,705	80,772		1,260	451,285
1891-92	917,535	224,356	282,553		25,892	1,450,336
1892-93	798,291	174,405	220,790		10,052	1,203,538
1893-94	101,205	32,581	38,524		2,530	174,841
1894-95	853,198	388,535	173,312		23,110	1,438,155
1895-96{	410,596	196,184	127,942		16,533	751,255
1895-96{	[A]11,342	[A]2,458	[A]1,771			[A]]15,471
1896-97	1,581,560	716,771	411,575	117,105	92,835	2,919,846
1897-98	490,138	198,281	123,828	88,780	12,969	913,996

[A] Boxes.

During the week ending December 11, 1897, there were exported from the United States to Europe 25,447 barrels of apples; of these, Liverpool got 3335, London, 2580, Glasgow, 3567, Hamburg, 5264; equaling 14,756. The total export to Europe this year from the United States, up to December 11, is 586,906 barrels bringing this country over 1¹/₂ million dollars. Last year we had a much larger crop, and up to this date had exported 2,087,573 barrels. Owing to the liability of getting loose in the barrel some shippers use boxes. We packed, last fall, 1000 boxes of Willow Twig and Ben Davis; these were packed in pear boxes, each apple wrapped in paper; the boxes (filled) would weigh about forty pounds. The apples are placed in layers six long by four wide and four layers deep, ninety-six apples to the box, putting the finest apples on top. The covers are put on with a lever press that presses on the ends of the boards and springs both the bottom and top of the box; the extra size in the middle is protected by cleats on the ends. The sides are of thicker boards and do not spring. If the apples should shrink in size, as apples do, the spring in the box will take up the slack. In loading on the car or ship, the boxes are placed on their edges. One thousand boxes make a good car-load, weighing about 40,000 pounds. A barrel will make about 4¹/₂ boxes. These cases of selected apples are expected to sell readily for eight shillings (or $2) per box, and packed in this careful manner should go through in perfect condition. If they bring satisfactory prices, I predict that next year more than one Kansas orchard will be packing apples for foreign export.