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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 9, 1924)
THE OREGON STATESMAN, SALEM, OREGON. I THURSDAY MORNING, OCTOBER. 9, 1924 - -mi i" w If ' ?" it ! M HOTEL BLIGH ir 100 rooms of Solid Comfort . ' ' j A Home Away From Home ELLING SALEM FRICT We Will Give Beat Efforts Devoted to Showing Salm District le the Advantages and Oppdrtimities: of Their At 'all times to assist In any possible way the derel opment of the fruit and berry industries In tbis T si-ley- - -i . 10 Peop Own Country We Ar Out After Two Millionth We are bow paying ott three quartern of a million dollar a year to the dairymen of thie section for milk. : -I-.- ""Marion Butter" Ib the Best Butter More Cows and Better Cows la tha crying need MARION CREAMERY & PRODUCE CO. Salem, Ore. Phone 2488 !i and Its Cities Towns The Way to Build Up Your Home Town j The Surest Way to Get More and Larger Industries Is i to Patronize Your Home People M ', ! and j r i f i ; ! : 1 if i. t : . l ..If. ' Af" -1 -i -Hi r ' I. ' , Jr..- i a j t t N. f 4 i t fi. -I cz 1 Next Week's Slogan 1 SUBJECT IS 1 DA I Butter-Nut Bread rhe Richer, Finer Loaf CHERRY CITY BAKERY j Ourj Ideal: ',J- Onr Method: i "Tha Best Only". Cooperation ,1 Capital Cty Co-cperalirc Creamery A Boa-profit orraniiation oinM entirely by tba dairymen. Oi trial. j "Maauactnrr of $utterrap Batter VA Tou: Crocer" . Phone 299 liS7 S. Com'l St 1 GIDEON bTOLZ CO: I - Manufacturers of , Dependable Brand IiimeSulphur Solution The brand you can depend ", on for purltr and test . - Prices npon application "" Factory neaf . corner, of Summer 'and ; Mill St. Salem. Oregon ! : Nelson Bros. Warm Air Furnaces, plumbing, heating and sheet jmetal work tin and gravel roofing, general jobbing in tin and galvanized iron work. 353. Chemeketa St. Phone 196 DIXIE BREAD DIXIE HEALTH BREAD Ask Your Grocer FOR YEARS AND YEARS i. The Statesman has ben supplying the fwants of the critical Job printing trade : j . Proof posttWe wo arei printers of worth and merit.' 'Modern, equipment and Ideas are the ones that get by. I I' j Statesman Company Phone 23 or BR3 21S 8.. Com'l St. Publishing Selling Salem District is a! INDUSTRY PRUES ARE IN THE ARISTOCRACY OF DRIES FRUITS. SAYS MR. GILE The Ancient Boarding House ed to the Limbo of the Past Prunes Will Not Soon Face a Condition of Overproduction Our Prunes Go to All the Parts of the World I II. S. Gile of Salem, the well known pioneer in the prune in-! duStry, aa a grower and dealer, j and' who, with W. T. Jenks, man- i age the Willamette Valley Prune j association, the pioneer of its class in this state, spoke to Salem Ki wanis club on Tuesday, and in the course of his remarks gave some facts that are intensely interest ing to all prune growers and 'oth ers interested in this great indus- try. He prefaced his remarks with a cr)idemnation of the an cient boarding house joke, which hag long been out of date,' as ap plied to Oregon prunes, the pre mier prunes of the world. Mr. Gile said in part:) Tou business men of the KI wanls club are vitally interested in the successful outcome of the prune business locally. When the producer in! any community suc ceeds, business in that communi ty is good, but if he fails to make a "profit, your business and-mine Is correspondingly bad. It's a good many years since Ben Cook, j Dr. Minthorn, Mr. Cottle and others, saw the vision of jour red hills on the south of us.j changed from wheat fields to orchards. 1 can remember and some of you older men can. too, when the various "Sunnyside" tracts were laid out and sold, to be planted to fruit, chiefly prunes. Whether" these men picked the best product upon which to spe cialize, in changing that district from a one crop scheme, to an other one crop specialty, would be difficult ; to answer without very carefully analyzing the con ditions existing here at that time. We do know, however,- that it was a country with small popu lation, poor roads and poorer rail transportation. We must at least conclude that they were right In their judgment that the country must diversify in Its production. Those hills jf together rwltn much other territory, in thisvalley, had produced wheat" too long already, and clearly, something else must bej found" more -profitable, with lesa drain upon the vitality, of the toff toils, w why . not plant trees and utilize the greater depths of fertility In our well known deep soils? We know today that they were wise in; not following the apple planting craze, bttt.-with all ihe rest, thfy probably over play ed! the small tract idea, which has worked hardship to many an In dividual, and has hurt the north west, i :' Itestj Prune , Srt ion i Experience has also taught us that even our very deep soils will not without help continue indefi nitely to produce prunes in size, quality and paying tonnage, but wq doubt if any brtter cpuritry In the northwest could have been chpseri for the culture of prunes than the Willamette valley. These men, of cours, could not forsee the fine intercoastal steamship service which we enjoy today, bringing u within 700 or 800 nilles of the center of population of; the United States of America, and correspondingly cheap rates to all European ports. We should therefore be smart enough to compete in prune grow ing with ny country In the world. j Why lie IMMronntged? If that is true why should any man owning a good prune orchard be discouraged? Answer, tempor ary adverse local market condi tions. ! : Prunes were produced commer- daily for generations in Europe netore we tnougnt about setting This campaign) of publicity for community upbuildingl has been made possible by the advertisements placed on these pages by our public spirited business men- men whose untiring efforts liavje builded our present recognized prospdriiy and who are ever! strivingjlfor greater and yet greater progress as thti years go by 7 1 i Prune Joke Has Been Relegat into! the game in this country, France producing the sweet varie ty, which has long been known to commerce as the French; prune, while the prune of the Itosnia Servia district, known commer cially when some of you older chaps were schdblboys as Turk ish prunes. This was the variety sent over here in great - hogs- heads, small " dirty, and auite worthless, which got for prunes ' the boarding house joke. ' California produces the" French variety almost exclusively, and harvests annually considerably more than half of the world's supply. -j' :H l , J. 'j j , j We Produce Ilest lVunes i The northwest produces a prune quite different from all others, though in taste resembling slight ly, the Bosnian. 1 It is a real prune, not simply an insipid sweet fruit, but one : with 'character, which more than 90 per "cent of the people like, and will use in their homes if they are taught how to distinguish when they place their orders. "i This is the task of some one who some day will successfully advertise Oregon prunes to the world, for they de serve to be world-famous. Since the major part of the prune supply i3 produced in - the United States, it is natural that the ! commercial ! appearance and the standards of quality should be greatly advanced, and that fact accounts for the tremendous in crease in prune consumption, in fact ' PRUNES are no longer a joke, but have been advanced to the luxury class. They are,' if you please, in the aristocracy of dried fruits. These big fat juicy fel lows which we Bend out from Oregon reach the tables of the finest homes in the country and this accounts in part for the wide spread in price between the pro ducer and consumer, Of which we all ;hear occasionally, in letters from back home. j j j - But in that ' connection the fact remains that by far the major part of our prunes find their way to the table of Mr, and Mrs. Ordi nary Consumer, at a modest price, due to the chain and department stores and the corner grocery, i We Have Wide Markets ,,'Xot only have the American people become great prune eaters in the few-years since we began to be prune growers in this coun try, but In our search for wider markets we have Invaded many distant foreign countries.: To illustrate' this fact, after your' committee called at our of fice last Friday. 1 happened to be in the packing room, and not ed (shipments prepared and in pro cess of being made ready for the following places: 3 Copenhagen. Christiana, Trons berg, Gottenberg, Havana., Cuba; Genoa. Italy; London, ; Liverpool, Boston, New Yorjc, Los Angeles, Montevideo, Urusuay. And It is only a short time since we ! sent out several lots to Cal cutta. India. - ; The Willamette . Valley Prune association has been consistently operating and doing its part to make and hold customers for our brands of prunes since 1900. J Another thing this association has been working on for about 16 years as an advertising - measure is circularizing and selling direct to consumers In territory where tho trade has not handled Ore gon prunes. It is Interesting to note how many of those repeat from year to year. One steel Pep and Progr manufacturer jesterday sent in his order for individual shipments covering Two typewritten;" pages. This has grown; from one individ ual box, and simply shows, as I see It. what wijl some day be ac complished through a well plan ned advertising program. ' The thing wljich has made this possible is a'jvery low special pound rate by"; express on dried fruits. (If this cquld be "secured on loganberry? jiiice, the new JELLY idea, made in home by the housewife from; juice and pectin, would solve out- loganberry grow ers problems.)! J I am one wh( believes that with an article so good as our prunes, and produced in so few sections of the world, and those sections ouite limited in area, prunes will not soon face a condition of over production, ft The Increase in pop ulation, the new markets, and the growing all the year around de mand for thenf will take care of increased production. We must, however, adjust our selves to carrying and distributing them over all -the months of the year, and we Should not be dis mayed, if a few prunes are car ried each year into the hew crop period. If they have been prop erly cured ther are really better a ff w months pld than when very freshly prepared. J We are toay, however, too much at the mrcy of eastern spec ulators and th4 supply at this end is hot well enough controlled. 4 " It has been;, demonstrated, at SLOGAN EDITOR BETS MAKES H1WI WANT TO LIVE UP TO IT Noble AndreWs, a Grower Who Prunes for! Twenty-Five Years, Believes tne bKy is Brightening for the Prune Industry He Speaks in Favor ot the French Variety j. Editor Statesman: ' I have been! living three and a half miles eas of the state hos pital. Salem, Oregon, since Octo ber 23, 1920. 1 , ; Became a subscriber and read er of the Oregon Statesman pa per right awajh and now, before I go further, X beg to make some comparisons, three stated; scribefeto: the 1 1 have lived in have' been a sub best newspapers of each state in whith I have lived, and, with due respect to all, I most sincerely and Iconscientiously say that the Oregon Statesman is the biggest and best booster of my knowledge.: j j , , About thre years ago I at tended a loganberry meeting at Salem, when aj prominent speaker of the day st4pped at a point in his talk and bsked the privilege to comment oh the Slogan edilor of The Statesman; said that he never knew fa man with such zeal, vim and power to play his part in the Interest of his com munity, and wtondered If the peo ple of Marion co:unty really ap preciated suchL a man. ' Xow About I 'runes Now, with gthej roary system, October 11th tbririg feet apart for the annual logan 1 number on the prune Industry; I hope to say something about prunes tbat will be of some interest to somebody. I have beep growing, drying and Felling considerable amounts of sweet (or prench) prunes for 25 years. I j have watched the ups and downs of all the products; of the farm, and I believe the prune has been the best" (If not the; very bestjj paying product of the farm. I iiave known men in times of dlscqjuraglngly low pric es to pull up- their prune trees, and were made to grieve over it with the comilig of 'better prices. A Wholesome Food Teople have learned that they cannot live half so well without fruit, and prifnes are wholesome; 1 i Is to Support Those You Have jj Continuation of the Salem Slogan and Camp aign enormous expense to ..the grower, and to the dealer as well, during the last four years, that . in. this article GROWER CONTROL, will not work.- ' Contrary to common belief. It Ms not working 'at 'alt smoothly in California, and a' bet ter way should be devised. ' 1 believe there is 'a way which will work: and which will protect the grower, not only against himself, but against agitators of unwise methods of. co-operation. 1 Now to finish, for dessert we will have some dry figures. The total available supply Of prunes In all countries on Sep tember 1,-1923. has recently been given out by the California asso ciation, .which should be about correct. . It was 500,000,000 pounds. ! Total available Septem ber 1, 1924, 318,000,000 pounds. Shortage as compared with one year ago, 182,000,000 pounds. There has apparently been sold and distributed In the last year the enormous, amount of 474,000, 000 pounds, leaving ; us at this time short of last year's distribu tion 156,000,000 pounds. In the light of these figures, prunes should be good property. May I suggest in closing that you men in this club very early pre pare your list of Christmas gifts 'which you propose sending to your friends In the east, and as far as practical include in that list as many of these gift packages as possible. Any ; prune packer will fill your orders. A BOOST THAT Has Been Producing Sweet a real food, a life preserver. I am informed by good authority that the sweet prune is one of the best laxatives and tonics with which to tone up the stomach known to medical science. f t As to the Future Now a word to the growers: We have 'had a hard pull; very discouraging for three pr: four years. Nobody to blame willfully that I know. of, but from the fact that our prune orchards outgrew our market and : the turbulent waves of the World war and our poor judgment in managing the whole situation, there has beert a great loss to the prune business. But out of It all we have learn ed, some great lessons and now it is very encouraging to me that the prune; game has a brighter prospect than ever before. Here the. pessimist or spasmodic - talk er knocks, but to. the reasonable thinker It is plain.; I said out of our . troubles we have learned some lessons, and the foundations for - a working system are laid. tTach prune dis trict has been , organized' of It self, then combined as one great unit, with a sales exchange de partment (o find our markets, which, managed wisely, will bring prosperity to the prune business. French Prunes l-'avorwl ' "Also, in my 25 years of experi ence with prunes, ; the French prune has been growing In favor In the i market, until now every prune observer knows that it, is becoming the leading prune, and because of this fact the prune business will have seemingly a new start, and I he man who keens up i with the progress ot the prune industry will succeed. In all our world struggles we have never been !i in great need without help somehow. The great Ruler of the universe comes to our rescue, and since our sweet prune' has been objected to as too small, we have a new prune known ROBERT C UIUS III i: ' GIVES RELIABLE The Acreage in Bearing and Coming on Will in Average i Years Bring About 100,000,000 Pounds of Dried I! Prunes The Market Situation Is Now Very Favor i able Thoroughly Organized Control Is Needed ; " .. ; .",!, : (Robert C. Paulus & Co., Unit ed States Bank building. Salem, Oregon, are' sales agents for northwestern canned goods and dried fruits. Mr. Paulus has had wide and long experience in these Tinea In this field. In a talk with the Slogan editor yesterday he said substantially the following;) The Oregon prune industry em braces the growing, evaporating and packing of prunes of the tart variety formerly known as the Italian prune being grown in the district of western Oregon known as the Umpqua valley, the Wil lamette valley and also in Clarke county, Washington. The growth of the prune " industry in Oregon and i Clarke t county, Washington, has been featured by a steady up ward climb sometimes punctuated by heavy spurts caused by large plantings of prosperous years. The peak, production of the indus try was In 1922, when a total of ;?2 million, pounds of . evaporated prunes were harvested, and mar keted. I The data on the crop for 1923 has not yet all been gath ered, but the crop has been estl- ; mated at over 45 million pounds. j The crop this year is short, due to unfavorable blooming weather, and is variously estimated " right at present at from 30 to 32 mil lion pounds. , j ' " 50,000 Acres Soon ; : j The acreage has grown steadily, until now there are upward of 35,000 acres in bearing in west ern Oregon and Clarke county, Washington. and approximately 10,000 to 15,000 acres nonbear ing. Ani average yield per acre is generally considered to be 100 bushels or about 6,000 pounds of fresh fruit, which, when '. evap orated make one ton or 2,000 pounds of dried fruit. These yields,- of course, vary according to weather conditions at the time of -blooming, etc., and occasion ally drop below this mark and in favorable years run higher, but the average is generally consider ed to be around, about the above figures. , - ' "" ' . ! The Question of j Profit , The question of a profit on an orchard depends to a great extent upon the sizes of prunes produc ed. Prunes are graded into the following! sizes: 30-40s, 4O-50s, 50-e0s, 60-7OS, 70-SOs, 80-90s, 90-lOOs, 100-1208 120s -and over. The above sizes indicate the num ber of prunes per ponnd. For in stance, 3 (M0 size prunes indicate that a pound of these particular sizes will contain from 30 to 40 prunes. Large sizes are desired.! by the grower for the reason that he gets more money for the large sizes, and after paying his har vesting, evaporating and hauling expenses, etc., he has a larger margin of profit on these sizes to enable him to take care of his In terest on his Investments, taxes, etc. Most growers would rather have a half crop, of ; large sizes .than a full crop of, about two tons per acre of real small sizes, as it would take nearly all of the money received for the small siz es to pay harvesting expenses. ' Securing of large slzeg is ac complished by judicious pruning and fertilizer, and the extra ef fort put Torth- to get the large sizes has been found to pay big re turns. ' Y. v as the N'oble French: a vigorous grower, a? prolific bearer, which dries 3 7 pounds to the box, goes in the 20 to 30 size, is very sweet, ripens the fore part of Au Wbj uffer wltb Stomacb Tronbl wben CbJfropractia wia Remore tbe Causa INTERVIEW - - FACTS Outlook Is Much Urlj;htpr Like every other industry n which producers have been engag ed, the prune business during the depression period was not prof it-J able. Conditions; are on the up grade, now, however, and the out look for the future is much bright er. ; It is estimated at present that over 50 per cent of the pres ent season's crop has been,, sold and is on the way to the market. If this is true there are probably hot to exceed 15 million pounds of Oregon prunes yet unsold in the northwest, which will not be enough prunes to take care of the normal demand for the next nine or ten months.. The only .diffi culty at present i3 the "whole sale houses' as a rule have bought their first supplies of prunes and will undoubtedly wait until about the middle of January or the first of February before they buy many more. , Will Depend on Grower The-' strength ' or weakness of the prune market from now on will depend upon the grower him self. There is a need for some better method of control than Is at present in existence. The "co operative associations do not con trol enough of the crop to be able to hold the market in periods of dullness such as we have at pres ents It behooves the growers to build up a strong central agency with control of the crop to pre vent price cutting, consignments and other demoralizing practices during' the period while the whole saler is getting rid of his first supplies. , ' In the present disorganized con dition of the industry it is up to each individual grower himself to stand patj for the benefit of the industry at large and prevent any one from getting prunes to offer with which to demoralize the mar ket. Very few growers realize the effect of a quotation of even one car of prunes at less than the standard price. 1 The minute a quotation Is made below the gen eral asking price, .the trade im mediately begins1 to feel that the market is "slipping" and they immediately withhold buying and it is impossible to interest them Luntil they run out of supplies. In the" meantime they do not push these goods and: do not get the distribution or the . consumption on them that they would if , the market were bn' the advance and they could see. a larger profit in their purchases. ' This in the past had the effect of reducing consumption early In the year, which is the most favor able part ot the; year for heavy -consumption, thereby making ft necessary to force an additional amount of prunes onto . the later market. In other words, it has been necessary for the consump tion to be Increased In the later part of the season, and this in crease has usually been gotten by a sacrifice, in. prices. The Position! is Favorable ' With the short crop that exists at present there Is no reason why any grower should have to take prices lower than those which has been paid already this season provided-W Is willing to bold the goods until the .market can take care of'them In the natural way. The following figures gotten .out gust; Is a boon to the prune in dustry. i " ' NOBLE ANDREWS. Salem. Or..- R.6. Box 67, Oct. 7, 1924; Ai ens Co. Your Health Begins When You Phone 87 : For An Appointment 1 DR. O. L.SCOTT j ; P. 8. C. Chiropractor; , Ray laboratory 414 to 419 U. 8. National Bank Building. 1 I Hours 10 to 12 a. m. and 2 to 0 p. m. by. Mr. Mortensen, .manager ct the California Prune and Apricct Growers association,; - shows the statistical position of prunes cf ttjis season as compared with last year: - '.,..-. " Available 'Stocla 1 ; T f Sept. 1 Sept. X, ; . .1923, 1921 ; (Millions) Lbs. 60 220 10 60 150 Lbs. California carry over. California new crop Oregon . carry over ........ Oregon new crop European crop.. 2t 500 31; "On the basis of these figures it wiir be seen that there is a huge shortage in the available supply this year tonnage redact tion, 182,000,000 pounds. "Taking into account the fruit from last year's crop which U still on hand, these figures show that there are available from all sources thousands of tons cf prunes less than were actual! ' sold during the past twelv month snortace. iit.uuu,uuti pounds. - 1 " i ' ' "In addition to the above show ing, of the strong marketing con- ditions it should also be borne la mind that the evaporated peacL crop Is short and. that short de- liveries are being made. The same is true of apricots. The ralsi crop which has also had a bad( effect, on the general dried fru: market, is now under control an I due to a short crop will undoutu edly clean up before next year's prunes are ready to harvest. Tha fresh apple .crop, which had a serious effect upon the marketl-H of prunes last year owing to thfi fact that fresh apples could t- obtained at ridiculously low pric- es way Into the summer month- f will not affect dried fruits tfci year on account of the fact that the -crop Is short and prices tc fresh apples are very good. This same condition has made a short age of dried apples and prices for dried apples ' have been ' cor re spondingly stronger than last year." - ; - . 4 '" Canned Pack Also Short Owing to shortages of various kinds of canning fruits there has been a short pack of canned goodtf put up this season. This ls als true of the home canning, which is generally done by the housed wives In the east. The cannej goods' pack of the northwest is more nearly cleaned up at present than has been for several years af this time of year, and it is antici pated that by the first ot Februi ary practically every can of good now in stock will be gone. ' Business Situation Better, Too Coupled with the above condf tlons it must also be borne I mind that conditions In the eas are much better than they wer. a year ago. As a general rul the employment situation is bet ter, and the farming sections arJ all much better off, owing to tint fact that they got good prices for their grain, and other products. The outlook for a strong drle? fruit market In the , spring i much stronger than it! has been for several years. With continent tal Europe, and : especially Ger many, back in the market fori prunes and having cleaned up all the small sizes in California thereby eliminating the domestic trade, the outlook. for the future, of the prune industry is much' brighter than it has been since the depression period started. ; Petite Good, Too Nearly all the prunes produced ' in the Willamette valley' and , Clarke county are of the Italian variety. . There are some petit or French prunes grown here. however, and quite a tonnage in the Umpqua valley. The growers or the French prunes In this dis trict have as a rule made as (Ca'4nat4 oa pact it) 1i