104 APPLE GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION AND RECIPES. 



Statistics show that the acreage of apples has been greatly increased 

 in the past few years, which, of course, means a corresponding increase 

 in the production. The East is also awakening to the possibilities in 

 apple growing, and where thousands of acres of this fruit were destroyed 

 by San Jose scale not many years ago, new orchards are being set out 

 and the West must be prepared to meet this competition. 



It has already been stated that the apple crop varies in size from 

 season to season, largely on account of killing spring frosts in different 

 parts of the country. This variation in size means a fluctuation in 

 prices, which range from very high in one season to very low in another. 

 During seasons of light crops the marketing problem solves itself, but 

 during seasons of very heavy crops there is always danger of prices being 

 so low as to make apple growing unprofitable. It is this fact that should 

 make us bend every effort toward increasing the consumption of apples, 

 in order to lessen the possibility of overproduction and consequent low 

 prices for our fruit. 



We are abundantly justified in any campaign that may be carried on 

 with the aim of increasing consumption, because of the excellent food 

 value of the apple. Much has been done in the past few years to educate 

 the people along this line. The splendid apple shows that have been 

 held in different parts of the country have taken a leading part in this 

 work. In our own state the great California apple show which is 

 usually held annually at Watsonville, but this year at San Francisco 

 and the annual Sebastopol Gravenstein show, have advertised in an 

 emphatic way the value of the apple as food. Who could look at a tasty 

 jelly exhibit, such as Mrs. McGowan's, shown in Fig. 57, without having 

 a better taste created for apple jelly ? Or who could look at the splendid 

 exhibits of Gravensteins at the Sebastopol show (Fig. 58) without going 

 away feeling that he must buy a box of Gravensteins when he gets home ? 



Our fruit journals have also done much toward increasing the con- 

 sumption of this, the best of all fruits. In 1912 the October number of 

 "Better Fruit," published at Hood River, Oregon, printed a list of 209 

 ways for cooking the apple. These recipes were gathered by L. Ger- 

 trude Mackay, of the domestic science department, Pullman, Washing- 

 ton. With the help of Mrs. Weldon 50 of these have been selected and 

 are here printed, in hopes that they may reach many housewives of Cali- 

 fornia, who will be encouraged to try them and cook more apples than 

 they otherwise would, thus aiding in the work of increasing the con- 

 sumption. 



