Winter Meeting. , 285 



THE APPLE IN COLD STORAGE. 



<B>- G. Llarold Powell. Pomologist in Charge of Fruit Storage Investi- 

 gations, U. S. Department of Agriculture.) 



<The following is an outline of an illustrated talk by Mr. Towell on the above subject] 



There has been a remarkable development in commercial apple grow- 

 ing in the United States within the last 30 years following the opening 

 of the interior of the country by the transcontinental railway, and by 

 more recently completed lines. Apple culture at the present time is no 

 longer an infant industry, but it ranks as a highly specialized form of 

 American agriculture. In 1900 there were more than 200,000,000 apple 

 trees in the United States which yield from 40,000,000 to 60,000,000 bar- 

 rels of fruit in a normal season. In the decade from 1890 to 1900 about 

 80,000,000 apple trees came into bearing or an average annual increase 

 cf nearly 7 per cent, during that period. 



Nature does not produce her crops uniforml}' throughout the year, 

 and unless there is some means of equalizing its distribution through- 

 out the season temporary gluts are bound to follow in the markets. 

 Not long- ago the apple crop had to be sold quickly after harvesting 

 near the centers of production to prevent excessive waste from decay. 

 The c[uantities received were often so great that the large markets were 

 consfested a: the height of the season when enormous amounts of fruit 

 were sacrificed for less than the cost of freight. At the same time the 

 supply in many of the larger distant cities and most of the smaller interior 

 towns, was unequal to the demand, while all of the markets were prac- 

 tically barren of apples during a greater part of the year. The danger 

 from gluts in the fruit market, as in every other industry,' is reduced 

 as we master the art of handling the temporary oversupply by storing 

 it and distributing it at home and abroad in time of greater need. 



The cold storage business has developed largely within the last 15 

 years, and in its broadest economic relation, is destined to equalize the 

 distribution of fruits, and to increase the demand for them both in 

 domestic and foreign markets. It holds the same relation to the fruit 

 industry that the great warehouses bear to the older industries, such as 

 grain, cotton and tobacco. Accurate statistics concerning the magnitude 

 of the cold storage warehousing business are difficult to obtain, but it is 

 probable that there are not less than i.ooo houses distributed throughout 

 the country that are devoted to a greater or less degree to fruit storage. 



