13 



passed through the channels of commerce mentioned above or go to 

 waste on the farms where grown. 



DISPOSITION OF THIS FRUIT. 



First of all, a large part is consumed where grown or in local markets. 

 Large quantities are consumed in the manufacture of evaporated fruit 

 and of cider, both for drinking purposes and for conversion into 

 vinegar. In certain districts large quantities of low-grade fruit are 

 used for canning and making marmalades, butters, jellies, etc. A 

 great quantity of this unmerchantable fruit, especial!} 7 in the South, 

 goes into the preparation of sun-dried fruit. In some years 200 tons 

 of this sun-dried fruit are shipped from the little station of Chris- 

 tiansburg, Va., 8 miles from the experiment station at Blacksburg. 



Perhaps the data a in regard to merchantable fruit produced have 

 been collected with as great accuracy in Virginia as in any other State. 

 These data show that our crop of 1897 reached about 281,889 barrels. 

 These figures are not quite high enough for that year, as the total 

 merchantable crop was about 300,000 barrels. Supposing this to have 

 been 00 per cent of the total crop, about 1,400,000 bushels of apples 

 were produced in Virginia that year. Of this quantity about 600,000 

 bushels were locally consumed or went to waste. Formerly the esti- 

 mates were much larger, being based on the Eleventh Census, 6 but we 

 now know that the census figures of 1890, so far as they relate to apple 

 production in Virginia, are inadequate. 



Excepting the sun-dried, evaporated, and canned fruit, the apple 

 products just enumerated are generally adulterated in the United 

 States, either by the use of other than vegetable substances or by the 

 mixture of different fruit and vegetable substances, and the use of 

 various preservatives and substances which, if not preservative, serve 

 to mask defects in quality and cheapen methods of manufacture. This 

 adulteration has become so notorious as to greatly injure a legitimate 

 trade which should be a most proper and natural outlet for this large 

 portion of our apple crop which falls below merchantable grade. 



The important practical bearing of these secondary industries upon 

 fruit growing in our country has led the writer fora number of years 

 past to devote some attention to their study, with a view to determin- 

 ing the principles which lie at the basis of the practical manufacture 

 of these products on the farms or in small cooperative factories placed 

 in the midst of the districts which furnish the raw material. 



To this work the authorities of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment 

 Station have given all the support possible with the funds available, 

 and the work has progressed sufficiently to enable us to give practical 

 instruction of a reliable character to our students, especially along the 

 lines of canning and making butters and marmalades. But on some 



"Bulletin 101, Va. Expt. Sta. 6 Bulletin 48, Va. Expt. Sta. 



