STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 75 



Mr. Eastman : My experience, in winter-killing, is that 

 when the warm days come and are followed by cold nights, then 

 the plants winter-kill. But if they are fastened down, they will 

 come through all right. 



Mr. WoosTivR : Let the ground get thoroughly frozen around 

 the roots of the bushes, then cover with mulch and they will not 

 winter-kill. Let the frost be late in getting out of the ground 

 in spring, and they will not winter-kill. 



OuESTiox : At what price must apples be sold to repay the 

 expense of growing? 



Mr. PowEix : That depends very largely upon the yield you 

 get from your trees. I have known seasons when apples sold 

 at the station for fifty cents per barrel, and at that price were the 

 best paying crop on the farm. The yield was good. One year 

 with another, 75 cents to one dollar per barrel, for the fruit, not 

 including the barrel, will pay all expenses and leave a handsome 

 profit. 



Question : What is the average cost of evaporating apples 

 and what price should we expect in .the markets ? 



Mr. Pope : I can simply say that with a small evaporator, 

 with a capacity of fifteen or twenty bushels a day, the cost of 

 evaporating would be four or five cents per pound. A bushel 

 of fruit will make five or six pounds of evaporated apple. Any 

 one can. make the reckoning on the profit. The price ranges 

 from five to fifteen cents per pound, depending upon the year, 

 and the quality of the fruit. Three years ago apples were very 

 low, and evaporated apples brought about five cents per pound. 

 The next year they sold readily for twelve to fifteen cents per pound, 

 where the work was done nicely. If your apples are selling for 

 twenty-five cents per bushel, there is no money in evaporating 

 fruit. 



Replying to a query as to the difference in varieties, Mr. Pope 

 said : I cannot say which variety is best. Apples picked 

 quite early, — those that blow off early in the fall, — make the 

 whitest fruit, and the dealers prefer them because they are quite 

 acid. Our Maine fruits, Baldwins, and other quite acid varie- 

 ties, are more sought after in the Boston markets than the west- 

 ern, because, when the apple is evaporated the quality they seek 

 after, the acidity, is reduced. Therefore the sourer the apples 



