122 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to put it down as deep as you care to go, if you can spare the time. If 

 your ground is heavy enough to stand it. 



The Chairman: On behalf of the Horticultural Society I want to 

 thank Mr. Lewis for the splendid talk he has given us and hope that we 

 may sometime in the future have the pleasure of learning more about 

 this most interesting and profitable subject. The next speaker on the 

 program for this afternoon, will be Hon. E. M. Pollard, of Nehawka, who 

 will address us on the subject of "Converttag cull fruit into cider and 

 vinegar." 



CONVERTING CULL FRUIT INTO CIDER AND VINEGAR. 



Hon. E. M. Pollard, Nehawka. 



Ladies and Gentlemen — Of course in presenting this question, it de- 

 pends entirely upon your view-point, the range that the discussion should 

 take. If you have a small orchard and are in a community where there 

 are a few, or perhaps no apples grown besides those you produce, then it 

 hardly pays to construct a cider mill and put in the machinery necessary 

 to take care of it. On the other hand, if you are living in a community 

 where there are a great many apples grown, it might pay and pay well to 

 put in the cider mill and go into the business of manufacturing cider and 

 vinegar. 



As to the cost of putting in the plant, I have only taken into account 

 a plant that would produce considerable cider, perhaps with a capacity of 

 from five hundred to one thousand gallons a day. I would not, and I do 

 not believe I would advise any one to put in a mill that did not have a 

 hydraulic press. There are a great many different kinds of presses on 

 the market. There are a good many presses manufactured that take all 

 the juice out of the apple, and of course you want to get all the juice 

 and not leave a part of it in the pumice. A hydraulic press with a capac- 

 ity of from twenty-five to fifty barrels of jcider, operated by hand power, 

 will cost about two hundred dollars. A hydraulic press with a capacity 

 of from fifty to fifteen hundred barrels per day will cost around four 

 hundred dollars, running of course by power. And of course you can in- 

 crease that as much as you want to, and the greater it will cost propor- 

 tionately. Then comes the cost of power. In most communities there 

 are traction engines used for threshing purposes that can be used or 

 hired to run your mill for a nominal cost, or you can put in a stationary 

 engine at a -cost of anywhere from a thousand up to two thousand dol- 

 lars, according to the capacity of the plant you want to operate. 



Now the cost of making the cider. We have a very large plant there, 

 and make cider on a large scale. I have figured a great many times the 

 cost of manufacturing the cider per gallon, taking a week's run. Some- 

 times a machine will run satisfactorily all day, and other days a small 

 accident will delay you an hour or two, — those things always occur in 

 all machines. I have figured all those things in arriving at any kind of 



