Among leading fruit producing countries of the world' and the principal products the fol lowing may be taken as typical examples sug gestive of the industry as a whole. The Ameri can tropics export enormous quantities of bananas, pineapples and coconuts to northern markets. The United States, Canada and Aus tralia ship apples to Europe, where commercial plantings are too small to supply continental demand. Reciprocal shipments from Europe to America consist largely of dried fruits, such as figs, prunes, raisins, currants and oranges, lemons and grapes. The quantities of all these fruits imported are lessening as American growers gain knowledge of how to grow equally good supplies. In each continent there is similar reciprocal shipment, the tropical and subtropical fruits moving north and the tem perate climate ones going south but to a less extent. In North America the movement of fruit is far more extensive than in any other continent. In addition to southern shipments northward and western ones eastward, there is a considerable movement from•east to west and from north to south. California and Florida annually ship trainloads of oranges, lemons and grape fruit beyond their borders. The former also exports fresh, dried and canned plums, cherries, peaches, pears, grapes, apricots; the latter sends pineapples, strawberries, peaches and to a small extent subtropical fruits.
The opening years of the present century have seen a still more striking development of the fruit industry in the enormous and increas ing plantations of cool climate fruits, notably apples, pears, plums and cherries in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and other northwestern States. These are being grown not merely for home consumption in those and adjacent dis tricts, nor even for shipment to Atlantic and other eastern States, but to Europe. and South America. Besides the factors of refrigerator car transportation and cold-storage warehousing the recently opened Panama Canal bids fair to have a marked influence; for by its means the cost of• shipment to gnrope-p4ax be lessened and markets on the eastern coast of South America reached more expeditiously and less expensively than when the route includes rail transportation from the orchards to Atlantic ports, transfer to steamer there, ocean voyage to Liverpool or other British port, a second transfer to other steamers and a second voy age to or through the tropics to some port in eastern South America. Developments were being made toward the more direct route sug gested when brought to a halt by the Great War.
The principles upon which the fruit industry of these Northwestern States has been able to develop in spite of competition from older and more firmly established Eastern fruit-producing regions are so thoroughly sound in themselves that they are slowly but steadily revolutionizing the fruit business everywhere. First, by means of cultural methods adapted to the region the fruit is given a finish not usually found in the older producing districts where nearness to market permits the sale of all grades of fruit. Second, careful sizing and grading are insisted upon by organizations of growers who realize that in order to make sales at all and the more important repeat sales they must maintain a higher standard of product. Third, the adoption and perfection of the box rather than some other package in which to ship and sell fruit. Fourth; uniformity and attractiveness of packing in these boxes. Results have justified the care exercised; for buyers and final consumers have been taught through experience with these goods that they do not need to open the packages but can depend upon the statements printed on the labels as to the contents. Herein
perhaps lies the answer to the question as to what factor is now destined to exercise most importance in the further development of the fruit industry.
As to what fruits are of relatively most economic importance, doubtless among fruits • consumed in the fresh state the orange leads since it is grown in the warm parts of all the continents though it enters important commercial channels mainly from southern Europe, the West Indies and the semi-tropical parts of the United States. It is also of importance as a source of cider, juice, marmalade and peel. Probably the apple. ranks next, with the mild parts of North America and Australasia in the lead. ' It finds the widest use of all fruits — f resh, evaporated, butter, marmalade, jelly, cider, vinegar, wine, champagne, brandy and countless culinary dishes. Then follows the grape which is grown on all continents from the tropics almost to the limits of agricultural endeavor, for consumption in the fresh state and as raisins, ocurrants,D wine, juice, vinegar, jelly and argots (a by-product of wine making used as a source of baking powder). The plum used fresh, preserved and as prunes comes next. Olives as a source of oil and a condi ment; lemons candied and raw; bananas fresh and as flour; peaches fresh, canned and dried; pears, dates, figs, strawberries, pineapples and cherries take commercial rank in about the order named.
Judged by commercial standards, quantity and variety of products, prompt adaptation of scientific principles and business sagacity to fruit production and disposal, the United States and adjacent Canada rank first among the countries of the world. This is particularly evi dent in the development of many branches of the industry. While fruit growing in America has scarcely deserved the title for as long as a century, several branches have been developed from the original wild species in scarcely more than half that time. One notable instance is the American grape, the leading variety of which, the Concord, first bore fruit in 1849, yet in the 70 years since then it has extended to practically every State and prov ince. It is now grown upon tens of thousands of acres and profitably employs thousands of people. Its latest development, the manufac ture of juice, is a purely 20th century industry which now. involves several million dollars in buildings and equipment The European straw berry, like the European grape, having failed in America, native species were developed so that now trainloads of berries daily go to market from individual shipping stations: Similar re marks, though in less degrees, are true also of raspberries, blackberries and cranberries. All of these have been developed from strictly American species and all since the middle of the last century.
The fruit industry and its sponsors have not alone profited by its development. With it have been deieloped many other lines of business which directly or indirectly depend upon fruit growing. A partial list includes the following: The nursery business, the manufacture of prun ing tools, spraying apparatus, insecticides, fun gicides, fertilizers, tillage implements (many of these specially designed for work in fruit plantations), harvesting equipment, grading machinery, marketing receptacles and many others. Then there is the reflex action of fruit growing upon the development of cold storage, refrigerator car building, railway freight traffic and commercial practices. Added to these are the subsidiary industries such as canning, evaporating, wine, .juice and vinegar making, each in itself involving enormous capi tal and employing great numbers of workmen.