GATHERING AND PROFITABLE UTILISATION OF APPLES AND PEARS. 207 



tomers, special occasions, or decorative purposes. I may mention 

 that two weeks following during this September I saw sold by 

 public auction in Hereford Fruit Market (where upwards of 400 

 lots of fruit were sold each time, good, bad, and indifferent) boxes 

 of selected specimen apples (Peasgood Nonsuch), containing 

 only one dozen fruits, at 4s. 6d. and 5s. per box, and that to 

 dealers, whereas there was plenty of common fruit sold at the 

 same sum per hundredweight. 



The best fruit can be sent to high-class markets packed in 

 suitable packages: the seconds should go to other markets where 

 there is a demand for this class of fruit amongst buyers who do 

 not care to buy the high-priced, but want more for their money. 

 There are many such markets in our great manufacturing centres ; 

 or they can be used for drying, cider making, jam making, &c. 

 There is one purpose for which your seconds may be utilised, 

 viz., drying. Although I have a good pattern of evaporator, 

 and know others who have used the same kind with success, I 

 cannot speak from practical experience on any large scale ; but I 

 believe only certain sorts of apples are suitable, and that to 

 work one profitably it requires doing on a moderately large scale. 

 There are several purposes for which the thirds can be profitably 

 utilised. Thousands of tons are used annually by jam makers 

 for making a cheap mixed jam, which can be sold at low 

 prices in our great manufacturing districts ; and as long as it 

 is sold for what it is, no fault can be found, as in no other way 

 can so cheap and wholesome a jam be made. I myself have 

 sold a hundred tons at one time to one firm for this purpose. 

 The jam makers will only take good boiling apples— the 

 sharper and more acid the better. There is another purpose for 

 which small apples can be used, viz., cider making; but a few 

 words of warning here : sharp, sour cooking apples will not 

 make good cider. Soil makes a great difference to the quality 

 of cider. On a shallow or gravelly soil good cider cannot be 

 made even from good cider sorts of apples. I think some of my 

 Kent friends found out these facts when attempting to utilise 

 their glut of fruit last year. Most rich, high-flavoured, and 

 sweet apples make good cider ; but the best of our dessert apples 

 are worth too much money in the markets even to make cider 

 with, and it would be folly to use them when as good or better 

 cider can be made from less costly fruit. I often feel amused 



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