19 1 4 



BETTER FRUIT 



Page II 



that for many things the time of boil- may be satisfactorily prepared in the 



ing is shortened. Corn, for instance, five-pound-pressure cooker in sixty 



takes ony 180 minutes, where it takes minutes and in the ten-pound-pressure 



240 minutes in the home-made outfit. cooker in forty minutes. 



The third or fourth canning outfits One valuable feature of these com- 



(Nos. Ill and IV) may also be obtained mercial portable canning outfits is that 



from a reliable dealer. These depend they may be handled by children as 



entirely on steam rather than hot water well as by older persons, and young 



for cooking the fruit or vegetables, and girls who are trying to learn how to 



are called "steam-pressure cookers." can may use them out of doors without 



The cooker with five pounds pressure interfering with the routine kitchen 



(No. Ill) does the work in much work. There is also a commercial 



quicker time than the water-seal outfit, portable hot-water bath outfit which 



and the cooker with a pressure of ten may be purchased to take the place of 



pounds or more (No. IV), in some in- the home-made outfit (No. 1). 



stances, will accomplish the work in Select the outfit which seems to fit 



half the time needed for the five-pound- your needs best. If possible see it in 



pressure cooker. For example, corn operation before buying. 



CANNING TIME-TABLE 

 [In "Size of Can" column, No. 2 and No. 3 are standard sizes, about equivalent to one pint and 



one quart, respectively.] 



Size Of cans, ' " "I IV 



„ , , , No. 2, Home-made WAi.ir-t;pfll Steam Pres ure 



Products to be canned Pints. hot-water Z,,n,l pressure cooker. 



No. 3, batli Dutflts. at "ll" cooker. 5 lbs. 10 lbs. 



Quarts. at 212° " or more or more 



Minutes Minutes Minutes Minutes 



Apples, whole or sliced, for pie filling. . 3 15 15 12 6 



Apricots 3 15 12 12 6 



Asparagus and other greens 2 or 3 60 60 45 35 



Apple eider 2 or 3 20 15 12 10 



Beans, lima or string 2 or 3 90 60 60 30 



Blackberries, dewberries 2 or 3 12 10 6 3 



Cherries, peaches 2 15 12 10 5 



Corn (Without acids) 2 240 180 60 40 



Grapes, pears, plums 2 15 15 10 6 



Hominy 3 60 50 40 35 



Huckleberries 2 10 8 6 3 



Okra and tomatoes combined 2 or 3 50 50 40 30 



Peas, beets, carrots, etc 2 60 60 45 35 



Pineapple 2 or 3 30 25 10 10 



Raspberries 2 or 3 15 12 8 5 



Sauerkraut 3 50 50 40 25 



Sweet potatoes 3 80 70 60 40 



Strawberries 3 15 12 8 5 



Tomatoes 2 or 3 22 20 10 6 



Tomatoes and cm n 2 80 70 60 40 



Grape juice 2 15 15 10 5 



Quince 3 30 25 15 10 



Tomato juice 2 20 20 15 10 



Pumpkin and squash 3 60 60 45 35 



Fish, pork 2 200 200 120 60 



Chicken, beef 3 250 240 180 40 



Figs 3 30 20 10 5 



Rhubarb 3 15 15 10 5 



For altitudes of 4,000 feet or more above sea level add about 25';'o time to this schedule. 



The Evolution of the Cider Industry 



[Specially Contributed to "Better Fruit"] 



INDUSTRIES which live and continue 

 through many generations to be use- 

 ful to man nmst pass through periods 

 of evolution. These periods of evolu- 

 tion make for the industry the develop- 

 ment which fits them for the conditions 

 resultant of ever-changing time. Pro- 

 gress and conservation brings on these 

 evolution periods. Conservative feel- 

 ing has been foremost in the minds of 

 prominent men for many years. The 

 by-products of our mills formerly con- 

 signed to our scrap dumps are now 

 being treated and much valuable mate- 

 rial obtained therefrom. Forests at 

 one time considered worthless only to 

 be converted into a clearing are now 

 being protected by the government. 

 The same thing is true of our western 

 land and of our mineral possessions. 

 In the meat industry packers have gone 

 so far as to conserve every part of the 

 hog so that now there is "nothing left 

 but the squeal." And lastly but not 

 least, the farmer is cultivating fewer 

 acres of land and producing more crops 

 than ever before. 



Neither has the apple grower been 

 lax in adopting this conservation spirit. 

 Apples which formerly rotted under 



the trees are now made into cider, and 

 from cider into vinegar, .jelly and boiled 

 cider. The latter is used extensively in 

 making apple butter and for culinary 

 purposes. To the orchardist who is 

 enthusiastic with this conservation 

 spirit, the cider press especially should 

 appeal. As a people, we Americans are 

 still woefully wasteful, but we are 

 learnin.g. Some of us have bumped 

 into the fact that it is not only our 

 products that count but our by-products 

 as well. 



There are no statistics to tell us how 

 many millions of dollars have gone to 

 waste in rotten apples. They have 

 been allowed to drop from the trees 

 and rot on the ground by the billion 

 bushels. Occasionally some farmer has 

 had the foresight to open the orchard 

 gate and let the hogs in. With the fur- 

 ther excci)tion of a few mills with 

 which few farmers ground and pressed 

 the ai)ples into cider the loss was total. 

 By the old process of cider making the 

 apple .juice was permitted to remain in 

 contact with the air so long that it was 

 very difiicult to keep it sweet; with the 

 improved methods we can have sweet 

 cider, vinegar, .jelly and ajiple iiutler 



for our New Year's dinner all made 

 from the same load of apples. 



The old log beam having a fulcrum 

 at one end and raised by hand power 

 was our primitive cider press. The 

 pressure was obtained from the weight 

 of the log, together with the weight of 

 a man who was stationed at the other 

 end of the log. Next in line came the 

 screw and knuckle-joint presses, which 

 served the apple grower long and faith- 

 fully. But these, too, came to the turn 

 of the road and were supplanted by 

 modern hydraulic presses. The old- 

 style screw press of the small type is 

 still used to some extent where it is 

 desired to make a small amount of 

 cider at odd times for private use. 

 These presses will turn out from 40 to 

 100 gallons daily and are sold at prices 

 ranging from .flO to .$20. 



The modern hydraulic press is 

 equipped with a piston working in a 

 cylinder. Water is easily pumped 

 through a small pipe into the cylinder 

 and the pressure being applied against 

 the end of the piston or ram. The ram 

 is thus forced out, pressing the apple 

 pomace which has previously been 

 prepared by a hand or belt-driven apple 

 grater. An average of 4% gallons of 

 cider can be produced by these presses 

 from a bushel of apples, and from 300 

 to 6,000 gallons made per day. The 

 hydraulic press has put the cider in- 

 dustry on a paying basis. The price 

 for making cider ranges from 1 to 3 

 cents per gallon; one day's run of 4,000 

 gallons, say at 2 ¥2 cents per gallon, 

 would make the operator ."flOO. Treated 

 cider sells as a soft drink at 50 to 70 

 cents per gallon; 100 bushels of apples 

 unfit for market could thus be made to 

 yield between $200 and i?300 with very 

 little labor. 



Some of the useful products which 

 come from the apple are vinegar, cider 

 syrup, cider .jelly, apple butter, pas- 

 teurized cider, etc. Below is given a 

 brief description of these products: 



Vinegar — The process of transform- 

 ing apple juice into good cider vinegar 

 is easily accomplished and can be pro- 

 duced in every household where the 

 necessary temperature can be con- 

 trolled. For vinegar, the windfalls 

 may be used or the pomace of later 

 pressing may be repressed, but for a 

 superior article only sound, ripe apples 

 should be used. Coimnon experience 

 teaches that if cider is exposed to the 

 air it will soon ferment. Now by 

 proper handling after the first stage of 

 fermentation the cider may be con- 

 verted to vinegar in a very short time. 

 It is well understood now that fermen- 

 tation is the work of myriads of bacte- 

 ria thai infest the cider and behave 

 very nnich after the manner of yeast 

 in bread making. Cider, in changing to 

 vinegar, passes through two stages: 

 First, the sugar of the juice is changed 

 to alcohol. Next, the alcohol is 

 changed to acetic acid or vinegar by 

 further fermentation. 



Cider Syrup — Fvaporation is another 

 method of treating cider. By this 

 l)rocess the vohmie is greatly reduced 

 and the resultant product is so concen- 

 trated lliat it will remain in a perfect 



