HORTICULTURE 23 



and appearance. The number of consumers who are willing and 

 able to pay a fair price for a superior grade is fast increasing, and as 

 population and wealth increases this discrimination in favor of the 

 best will become even more pronounced than it is today. Those 

 fruits are most stable in price that can be readily used for canning 

 or drying, since when low in price the surplus may be readily dis- 

 posed of to the local factory. (U. S. E. S. B. 178.) 



PROCESSES FOR SAVING THE CROP. 



The several processes which are now in use and regarded as effi- 

 cient to preserve a crop and put it in commercial form are: (1) Sun 

 drying or evaporation with artificial heat; (2) Canning; (3) Ex- 

 tracting of the juice. 



If a plantation is too remote from a market or a preserving fac- 

 tory to justify carriage of the fruit, it will be necessary to work the 

 entire crop at the plantation into concentrated commercial form 

 through the use of one or all of the processes above mentioned. In 

 some localities all the product of an apple orchard, excepting the 

 first-class fruit (which will generally find a ready sale), may be 

 profitably worked into cider for beverage uses and into vinegar. The 

 product of peach, pear, and plum orchards, in case the first grade 

 does not find ready sale in its natural state, can be saved from waste 

 through the processes of evaporation and canning. The product of 

 small fruit plantations, being quickly perishable, requires immediate 

 disposition, either in its natural state or preservation by evaporation 

 and canning to prevent losses. In seasons of great fruitfulness there 

 generally occurs a glutted market, and despite the best efforts of 

 agents and commission houses some large shipments are lost in part 

 or in whole which might be saved by evaporation and canning. 

 (Y. B. 1898.) 



Utilizing the Fallen Product. Through the attacks of inserts, 

 which become numerous in some orchards, and through violent wind- 

 storms and severe droughts, a portion of the product will prematurely 

 fall and be wasted unless means are used to save it. This fallen fruit 

 is unfit for any purpose except for swine food, and it is therefore 

 advisable to turn hogs into the orchard to forage upon it, thus con- 

 verting it into a food for an animal having a commercial value, and 

 at the same time causing the destruction of the infesting insect larva? 

 and preventing the future increase and spread of such damaging 

 agents. Thus, it will be seen that there is no necessity for any waste 

 occurring in any portion of the product of an orchard under eco- 

 nomical management, as all parts of the fruit may be profitably saved 

 by the several methods presented. What has been said has been more 

 especially in regard to saving the product of the smaller or family 

 orchard, but the principles involved are the same whether applied to 

 large or small establishments, and the means may be provided accord- 

 ing to the necessity of the larger or smaller operation. (Y. B. 1898.) 



Choice of Locations. Most persons who are making a specialty 

 of fruit growing and many farmers who contemplate changing from 

 general cropping to fruit growing are so held by social ties, land 

 mcumbrances, and in other ways that they can not easily change 



