543
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 | |||||||