CHAPTER I. 

 THE MAGNITUDE OF THE APPLE INDUSTRY. 



Fruit production per capita. The commercial demand in the United 

 States for fresh fruit has been created during the past fifty years. The 

 small quantity of fruit that was produced half a century ago was 

 largely used for wine and cider manufacture, but fresh fruit and canned 

 fruit are now among the staple articles of diet for the laborer as well 

 as for the wealthy. Table i shows that the value of the orchard 

 products on the farm has increased from 33 cents per capita in 1850, 

 to $1.11 per capita in 1900. If all fruits are included the value would 

 be about fifty per cent greater, the amount for 1900 being $1.74 per 

 capita (see Table 2). Much more than these amounts must be spent 



TABLE i. 



Relative increase of population and of value of orchard products from the census 



reports. 



Values of orchard products are for the year preceding the census. 



2 The value of orchard products was not given for 1890. 



'" In 1870 the value of orchard products returned was $47,335,189. The reduction 

 of this amount by the then existing premium on gold (25.3 per cent on the average 

 for the twelve months of the census year. May 31, 1869, to June i, 1870) would 

 yield about $38,000,000." Tenth Census, Statistics of Agriculture, page xxii. 



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