124 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



vent evaporation, otherwise you would hardly be able to conceive the 

 rapidity with which it evaporates, especially in wai-m weather. 



Now as to the profits. In making cider that isi an important thing. 

 We have been in the business for almost twenty-five years and we have 

 gone thru all the upsi and downs of the cider business, and it is only 

 within the last ten years we have made a success of it, that is, the hand- 

 ling of the cider as a finished product. There is a good market for cider. 

 I presume in Nebraska there is consumed every year from twelve to eigh- 

 teen cars of sweet cider, which is dnmk as a beverage. 



Cider is one of the hardest commodities in the world to control. 

 When fermentation begins in a barrel of cider it is next to impossible to 

 stop it, unless it is pasteurized. That will check it. There is no grocery- 

 man that has been in the business any length of time at all who has not 

 tried taking cider from farmers or fruit men without experience, on ac- 

 count of friendship or some other reason that has permitted him to do so, 

 and in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it has gone back on him. For 

 that reason it is difllcult to sell or introduce it. I think it was about ten 

 years ago we found out how to prevent fermentation, or rather iiow to 

 preserve the cider. It has then taken us ten years to build up a business. 

 Even now in places we have trouble in selling our goods. The dealers 

 all know the cider that is made in New York, or know the Duffy brand, 

 and know that won't spoil, but they don't all know our cider. 



But with vinegar it is different. You convert cider into vinegar and 

 you have a- staple product. Everybody knows what it is, and it commands 

 a very good price. So my advice to the fruit growers would be this: Put 

 in a small plant, because it is desirable to save the waste. 



DISCUSSION. 



A jVIember: You spoke about the vinegar always being salable. Now 

 in our country, it is good pure cider I know about, and our merchants 

 won't buy it at four cents a gallon. 



Mr. Pollard: Is it made the old way? 



Member: .Yes, sir. 



Mr. Pollard: The trouble is because every groceryman, that ever 

 had a barrel of that vinegar knows he has about three or four gallons of 

 slush in the bottom. 



Member: They refuse to touch it if it is drawn off. 



Mr. Pollard: Has the vinegar been tested, so that it comes up to the 

 requirements of the law? 



Member: They say it does not make any difference, that it is illegal 

 to buy it. 



Mr. Pollard: That is not true. I would like to buy it at that price. 

 There is nothing in the law that prevents the groceryman irom buying 

 vinegar from a farmer, or prevents a farmer from selling his vinegar to 

 a groceryman, providing of course, the vinegar comes up to the test of 

 the pure food law. 



Member: Must you have it tested beforehand? 



Mr. Pollard: It is best to do that because if you do not do it you 

 are liable to be prosecuted. 



