SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 341 



apple harvest; here we often have some weeks of almost summer heat after 

 they are gathered. Secure cold storage for our apples and they will keep 

 equally well. This need not be a very costly matter. A suitable fruit room 

 with convenience for using ice is within the means of every man able to own a 

 good orchard. Nature furnishes plenty of ice nearly every winter. I judge 

 that fifty cents a barrel will cover the annual cost of the cold storage. Ben 

 Davis apples sold this year at gathering time for about a dollar a barrel in our 

 towns. They are to-day worth four dollars a barrel in St. Louis. Can our 

 apple growers see any business in this? — Farmer and Fruit Grower. 



SWEET APPLES. 



There is a marked increase in the value placed on sweet apples. When most 

 of our orchards were composed of seedlings, the farmer generally found sweet 

 apples enough to supply the demand of his stock, and these were generally 

 sweeter apples than those obtained from the most popular grafted varieties. 

 These old orchards are fast passing away, and the seedlings, many of sterling 

 worth, are lost. The farmer has been, so far, inclined to plant mostly for 

 profit, and for that reason, of sour varieties. But now farm requirements 

 demand a good selection of grafted sweets. Consumers, also, have been grad- 

 ually educated to the great value of sweet apples for table consumption. It is 

 the roast beef of fruits. "What fattens the animal nourishes man, if it be pal- 

 atable. The price of sweet apples is about the same as sour, and in early winter 

 the demand is greater. — Vt. Phenix. 



THE APPLE MARKET IN THE FUTURE. 



The farmer of an observing habit learns a lesson from the harvesting and 

 marketing of each crop. 



What is the lesson of the apple crop of 1880? First, that it has been the 

 largest crop ever harvested in Michigan, and that it has barely paid the expense 

 of handling; and in places remote from shipping points the only profit has 

 been gained by a few days' work of man and team spent in hauling. Prime 

 fruit has been sold at 50 cents a barrel, the buyer furnishing the barrels and 

 packing the fruit, and leaving the owner to do all the rest. And yet the fact 

 remains that nearly one-half of the orcharding of the State of Michigan has 

 not yet come into bearing. Four or five years ago thousands of acres were set 

 out to apple trees under the belief that the north and the west would always 

 furnish a constant and ready market for all the fruit we could raise. But we 

 find that both the north and the west are receding from us, and shipping rates 

 are so high that the profit is eaten up by the expense. A disappointment is 

 likely to arise also in the fact that very many of the young orchards will not 

 bear the kinds of fruit expected, and also in the fact that many varieties not 

 well tested will not meet expectation. In view of these things, let eyery one 

 who contemplates planting an orchard think well before planting more than 

 will be needed for home consumption, and see that only those varieties are 

 planted as are of known merit. The mass of farmers cannot afford to experi- 



