432 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



EVAPORATED APPLES. 



HE crop reports state that the apple crop in the United 

 States is only about half the usual yield. In localities where 

 the crop is good, apple buyers are numerous, and are offer- 

 ing good figures for sound winter fruit. The question will 

 arise in many a farmer's mind how to dispose of his apples 

 so that they will bring the largest returns. This question 

 may be answered in different ways. If the farmer is situated 

 near a good market, and has good storage for his winter's fruit, it may pay him 

 best to pick it carefully and hold it until he thinks the market will go no higher, 

 and then dispose of the fruit himself. But when the orchard is of considerable 

 size, the most profitable way to handle the apple crop is to dry it. 



Take the present prices offered in New York for evaporated fruit, ten and 

 one half cents per pound. At six pounds of dried fruit to the bushel of apples^ 

 this would represent sixty-five cents per bushel, and this for any apples large 

 enough to dry. Many varieties of apples will overrun the six pounds. Russets, 

 it is claimed, will make nine pounds of dried fruit to the bushel. This would 

 represent the sum of ninety cents a bushel for every bushel evaporated of this 

 variety. 



Small apples, under two inches in diameter, are made into what is called 

 "chops," or jelly stock ; even the core and peelings have a commercial value, 

 either dried or made into vinegar. 



When apples are sold to the general buyer, the culls and small fruit are 

 thrown out and frequently left to rot on the ground. In an orchard of any size 

 this item alone, if saved, would pay for an evaporator in one year. 



It costs as much money to hand-pick one bushel of winter fruit as it does 

 to evaporate the same amount. 



A sudden wind squall in our locality blew off thousands of bushels of the 

 prematurely-ripened fruit. What will become of all these apples on the ground ? 

 Ninety-nine bushels out of every hundred will rot ; the one-hundredth will 

 belong to a man who has an evaporator, and he will realize fifty cents a bushel 

 from these windfalls, after paying all expenses of drying. As fifty cents per 

 bushel is about as high a price as is ever offered for picked winter fruit, this 

 ought to be a good argument in favor of having an evaporator. 



Do not infer that the price of evaporated apples always remains at ten or 

 ten and one-half cents ; rather the contrary. But when dried apples are worth 

 five cents per pound, choice winter apples will be abundant at twenty five cents 

 per bushel. 



The evaporator offers every man who has a twenty five acre orchard a 

 market for his fruit. When evaporated, it can be kept unchanged for years if 

 the proper precautions are used. 



And yet, judging from the experience of those who have gone into the 



