58 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
THE CIDER INDUSTRY IN ONTARIO 
Suggestions by an Expert, L. Meunier, Formerly of France 
Great improvements have taken place within the last 
few years with regard to the growing and shipping of Apples. 
Thanks to your Fruit Growers Associations, Canada is 
coming rapidly to the fore, and you can now supply the 
European markets with fruit in better condition than their 
own. Some Canadian growers think that the Canadian 
Apples have a bad reputation on the other side, but in this 
I do not agree with them. To give you an idea of the popu¬ 
larity of your fruit, not only on the British market, but even 
in France, I will tell you what I heard in Paris. A peddler 
stood in a crowded street with a fine load of apples. “How 
pretty they look,” said a lady passing by. “They are Canadian 
apples, are they not?” 
It is quite apparent that you take better care of your 
orchard than the growers in the Old Country. Here pruning 
and spraying are the rule, as well as good packing. And yet 
you complain because you cannot compete with the Australian 
and Californian Growers. They pack in boxes and it seems 
that it suits the dealers better. But the trouble is chiefly 
caused by the culls being mixed with the better grades. 
Notwithstanding the greatest care you get a certain amount 
of scabby, worm-eaten, ill-shaped apples, as well as sound 
wind-falls. Practically, these culls have no value whilst the 
first and second grade are always sold at reasonable prices. 
Temptation is inherent to human natirre, and in most cases 
the packers try to raise the culls up to the level of the first 
or at least second grade. As long as it is not possible to 
tinn the culls to good account, it will be very difficult to 
avoid this trouble. 
Some months ago, when in London, I asked an apple 
dealer, “How can you explain the superiority of the Austra¬ 
lian apples sold on the English market?” He answered that 
in Australia they use the culls to feed hogs and make cider, 
only shipping the best grade. Can you do the same and 
will it pay ? Let us study the question. 
There are already many growers who feed the culls to 
their hogs. Let us consider what lo pounds of culls would 
produce in that way. Apples are very poor in nitrogen and 
you can’t build up a pound of flesh without a good deal of 
that element. I calculated that 6o pounds of green fruit 
are needed to make a pound of flesh. If you estimate it at 
12 cents a pound you see that lo pounds of green fruit will 
only give you a retmn of 2 cents. 
Let us now turn our attention to cider-making. The 
juice of culls is the same as the juice of sound apples, the 
only difference being in the appearance of the fruit. There¬ 
fore, there is no reason why you could not make good cider 
with cleaned culls. 
What is the wholesale price of cider in Toronto, for 
instance? Sixteen cents a gallon on the average, and how 
many pounds are required to make a gallon. By the French 
way, not more than 10 pounds. In this Province of Ontario, 
even for a very small factory, the cost of the making and 
shipping will not exceed eight cents a gallon. Therefore, 
turned into cider, your culls will give you eight cents per ten 
pounds. 
And now the pomace (that is to say the pressed apples) 
should not be thrown away as is generally done. This 
pomace is much richer in nitrogen than the apple itself, 
as the nitrogen, being insoluble, is not crushed out with the 
juice. In other words, you can fatten nearly as many hogs 
with your pressed apples as with the green apples them¬ 
selves. Every ten pounds of green fruit will consequently 
give you a return of one cent at least by feeding hogs with 
the pomace. That is to say that ten pounds of culls will 
give you a return of nine cents, by making cider and feeding 
hogs. It will pay you $1.35 a barrel, which shows that they 
are worth saving and profitable without shipping with the 
better grades. The culls will pay 90 cents per 100 pounds 
whereas the driers and canning factories give you only 50 
cents per 100 pounds for high-grade culls, and very often 
they could do no better without losing rhoney. Therefore 
cider making is a profitable business, and yet I have heard 
of many failures in this country. 
When in Montreal some time ago, I said to friends that 
there was no better drink than cider, and I backed my 
opinion with quotations of celebrated English and French 
people. My friends ordered a barrel of cider. The day 
after they received it, very naturally, I went to pay them a 
visit. As soon as I arrived I was told that they had sent 
a barrel of vinegar by mistake. My friends thought it was 
vinegar, but it was really a very hard, very sour and poor 
quality of cider. To get a fair price you don’t only want to 
make cider, but to make good cider, and to do this you want 
the right apparatus and process. 
This Province has to get rid every year of several million 
bushels of culls. If we turn it into cider will there be enough 
people to drink it, and supposing so, what will be the price? 
“Is there no market in the world but that of the Province?” • 
To get important sales and high prices you have to reach 
other countries. Great Britain, Quebec and South America 
are fit markets for cider, but any cider is not fit for their 
markets, and if you don’t ship the right cider to the right 
place, it will always be a failure. . The wholesale price in 
London is on the average 28 cents a gallon. Therefore, 
by shipping to England you can obtain a much higher profit 
than by selling your cider" here. Some Nova Scotian and 
Ontario cider makers have fully realized this fact, and, 
thanks to them, the exportation of Canadian cider has 
increased very quickly. 
In 1903 they shipped cider to the value of $810.00. In 
1906 this export had increased to $9,400, while in 1909, 
135,244 gallons were shipped, representing a value of $27,953. 
This is just a drop to quench the thirst of John Bull. And 
yet, do not think that John will drink every kind of cider. 
If you don’t send him the right one, don’t expect to make 
him a good customer. English people like Devonshire 
cider. You can’t change their minds. You have nothing 
