12 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 231 



The Baldwin is easily the favorite for cooking purposes, being named 

 as their choice by nearly 60 per cent of consumers reporting. The 

 Greening stands second, 19 per cent naming this variety. The Mcintosh, 

 it is rather surprising to discover, is third choice as a cooking variety, 

 although it is reported by only 5 per cent of the consumers. The Graven- 

 stein, also generally considered a table apple, is almost as popular for 

 cooking purposes as is the Mcintosh. 



In New York City the Greening, according to a recent study', is in 

 greatest demand for cooking, nearly one-fifth of over 3,000 consumers 

 expressing a preference for this variety. The Baldwin, the favorite cook- 

 ing apple in Massachusetts, is the choice of only 4 per cent of the reporting 

 New York consumers. Nearly 35 per cent of these New York consumers 

 have a definite preference for green apples for cooking, whereas Massachu- 

 setts housewives prefer red apples for both cooking and eating purposes. 



The Mcintosh is the favorite eating apple in New York City as in 

 Massachu.setts, and this demand is largely among Jewish consumers. In- 

 deed, in the New York market, it is sometimes called "the Jewish apple." 

 The demand for Baldwin is about the same as that for Delicious, some 

 8 per cent of the consumers reporting expressing a preference for these 

 varieties. The Fameuse apple is best liked by about 7 per cent of the 

 consumers; but no other variety even approaches these in popularity. 



Some growers and dealers have felt concern lest the large plantings of 

 Mcintosh trees may mean over-production within a few years, but there 

 seems little fear of this because of the growing popularity of the variety in 

 practically all markets. New York prefers the Mcintosh apple from New 

 England because it takes on a better color and has a better flavor than 

 those from New York orchards. The New York market has also taken 

 kindly to the Massachusetts boxed Mcintosh in the last two years although 

 it has been considered as distinctly a barrel market. The wrapped New 

 England apple has also recently met with favor in New York City, indicat- 

 ing that the demand in that market for our best apples is increasing. 



Dealers report that the demand for eating apples is increasing while 

 that for cooking apples is steadily decreasing. Formerly housewives did 

 much more baking of pies and puddings than they do at the present lime, 

 and used many more apples for these purposes. Today many housewives 

 bake no pastry. Of those reporting for this study about one in eight uses 

 no apples for making pies. Bakeries, on the other hand, bake pies for 

 consumptoin in the home and in public eating places. 



The housewife of today serves more salads than did her mother and 

 her grandmother, and for this purposes eating apples are preferred to the 

 stricth' cooking varieties. 



Consmner Buying — Quantity Purchased 



About one-third of the consumers reporting for this study buy a 

 bushel of apples at a time, and 12 per cent buy by the barrel. These 

 are mostly in the western part of the state and report also adequate 

 storage space. 



Of those who buy by the bushel, about 8.5 per cent buy from the 



> Unpublished data from this study were supplied by Mr. E. R. French of the New 

 York Food Marketing Research Council. 



