336 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Apples and Waste Apples. 



Since some of the many commercial orchards Iq the West have 

 come into bearing, the question naturally arises in the mind of the 

 orchardist — What can be done with the vast quantity of windfalls and 

 culls of our orchards ? 



It is a natural result of every orchard that bears fruit that, from 

 first to last, at least 30 per cent of the crop is not fit to be packed and 

 sent to market. Nor is this confined to the apple orchard, the pear^ 

 the peach and the plum all come in for a large share of waste. The 

 latter are still more difficult to handle than apples, as they come earlier 

 in the season, and must be handled quickly, if at all. 



There is always some demand for canned or evaporated peaches 

 at some price, but, since the country has been flooded with canneries 

 and evaporating plants, the prices are so low that the products will 

 scarcely pay for the labor, to say nothing of five or six thousand dol- 

 lars invested in canning machinery or several hundred in evaporators. 



There is a growing demand among hotels, eating houses and pie 

 makers for canned apples in gallons, and at one time we thought we 

 had solved the problem as to what to do with our cull apples, but like 

 most other products in this line the price has gone so low that it barely 

 pays for the labor and other expenses of getting them ready for 

 market. 



Apples may be evaporated at a cost of about three cents a bushel, 

 and a bushel will make about five pounds of dried fruit, worth on the 

 market now about 4f cents a pound, or nearly 25 cents for the product 

 of a bushel of apples, leaving less than ten cents for fruit, freight and 

 commission. 



If we were prepared and could utilize in canning and evaporating 

 all the waste products of our orchards and could sell them all readily 

 and quickly at a small margin of profit, then the problem would be 

 solved, but can we ? I say, " No." There are now in the hands of the 

 producer canned goods of the pack of '94 that could not be sold any 

 time up to now for more than barely the cost of packing them. Slick- 

 tongued agents, mostly representatives of a Chicago firm, have flooded 

 all the country and persuaded people of many small towns that their 

 only salvation was a canning factory. They agree with them to furnish 

 the outfit for a canning jjlant for so much (about double the value) 

 and as an inducement will take a liberal amount of stock in the con- 

 cern, and the deal goes, the plant is erected and run the first year at a 



