ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 209 



unless better than most cellars, are a thing also of the past for 

 storing apples. A place for keeping apples from decaying after 

 picking is what is needed, as much as anything else for largest 

 profit. ]\Iany an apple crop has been wasted after picking, from 

 being stored in an improper place. Two conditions are neces- 

 sary for the perfect keeping of apples, viz.. a cool atmosphere 

 and one with sufficient moisture in it. 



Can these conditions be reached and maintained by the 

 grower ? Certainly they can. One way is with ice, and another, 

 when on a large scale, is in cold storage with chemicals, and such 

 places for storing perishable fruits are coming more and more 

 into general use. 



Another important matter in large profit from the orchard is 

 the saving of wind-falls and inferior fruit. Orchards fed, culti- 

 vated, fruit thinned, and cared for as' I have directed, will not 

 have so many wind-falls as we now have under our trees, but 

 there will always be some not perfect enough to put in the boxes 

 to sell for No. i fruit. There should be in every town where 

 apple-growing is carried on to any extent, an evaporating plant, 

 where all the apples for drying may be brought to and dried. 

 This is now done in many places in Western New York, and 

 many thousands of dollars are made from these drying houses. 

 Apples are dried by hot air, and from 300 to 500 bushels per 

 day can be pared, bleached, dried, and boxed. They are then 

 put up in boxes of 15 or 20 pounds, and can be shipped any- 

 where. The market for these dried apples is the world. Apples 

 for this purpose usually bring 25 cents per bushel. This is 

 more than such apples are worth to feed cattle, or to make mto 

 vinegar. I have seen made from the cores and parings of apples 

 at these drying houses what is called "apple butter," a jelly 

 made from the juice and boiling it, until it comes out a thick 

 paste or jelly; and it is really very fine. I have never seen this 

 "apple butter" here in the East, but it has many uses, and is 

 very wholesome. 



Now I have hurriedly gone over this question of the apple as 

 a money crop, and how to get the most out of it, yet there is one 

 important matter for greater profit connected with it that T have 

 not touched ; that is, cooperation or combination. Applied to 

 orcharding or farming, it is in advance of the farmers, but in 

 manufacturing, or in the mercantile business world, it is uni- 

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