The Puyallup Berry Men Take On the Midwest — and Win on Freight
Growers meet in Puyallup to chase cheaper rail rates and a St. Louis World's Fair exhibit, while a North Dakota buyer tells them their fruit beats the Minnesota competition even after 1,500 miles in a refrigerator car.
The fruit growers of the Puyallup and Sumner districts had a special meeting in Puyallup on February 19, and it was a most enthusiastic gathering. The growers' association called its members together to consider plans for exhibiting and selling Puyallup berries at the St. Louis fair and to determine on some course to secure a reduction on freight rates to Missouri river points. They want to secure the same favorable rates from Puyallup as are enjoyed by points not so favorably located.
Another reason for calling the association together was the fact that W. K. Nash, of Nash Bros., Grand Forks, N. D., was in Puyallup and would speak to the members. Nash Bros. handled the greater part of the association's output sent to the Grand Forks market last year. Mr. Nash made an interesting talk on the Puyallup berries, showing that their invasion into the Dakotas, Michigan and Minnesota awakened quite a strong feeling among the berry-growers of the Long Lake country, near Minneapolis, who had previously wholly supplied the markets of that section. A fight to hold said markets was begun, and will be continued through the coming season.
But Mr. Nash says the Long Lake berries are not so good nor so large as the Puyallup fruit, and notwithstanding the fight of the Long Lake growers, many more Puyallup berries can be handled the coming season than last, and at higher prices. He says, though the Puyallup berry has to travel 1,500 miles in reaching Grand Forks, it arrives there in better condition than the Long Lake product, which reaches Grand Forks in 200 miles' travel. Grand Forks, Mr. Nash states, is the natural market and distributing point for Puyallup berries.
Thirty-two thousand crates of berries were shipped in pony refrigerators from Puyallup last season. As these refrigerators had to be rented by the association, the advisability of the association owning its own refrigerators was brought up by Paulhamus, and the Bennett patent was exhibited for examination. Several other refrigerator inventors will later show models, and from among them the directors will probably decide on the one best suiting their needs.
“Though the Puyallup berry has to travel 1,500 miles in reaching Grand Forks, it arrives there in better condition than the Long Lake product, which reaches Grand Forks in 200 miles' travel.”
A century before farm-to-market logistics became a policy slogan, Puyallup growers were already fighting over rail rates, cold-chain equipment and out-of-state shelf space. Their answer — a cooperative that owned its own refrigerators and bargained collectively for freight — is the same playbook Washington's fruit and berry growers still run today. The Long Lake fight also foreshadows a familiar tune: Washington produce winning on quality, then having to prove it 1,500 miles from home.
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