Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-08-16
Farm AND GARDEN.
THE USE OF APPLES AS FOOD.

THE USE OF APPLES AS FOOD.
Many persons suppose that apples are
only useful as a dessert fruit, as sauce, or
in pies. Except that portion used as q
beverage in the shape Of cider and its
stronger products, this fruit is too little
known among the masses, except as lux
ury, when it should be common article Of
food. This is due, says the Western Rurat,
to various causes the principal among
which are the ignorance relating to its real
value as food, and the various profits aris-
ing from its handling before it reaches the
consumer. EE
, Besides the large amount of real nutri-
ment which the apple contains, in the shape
of saccharine, mucilsge, ETC., il also con-
tains vegetable acids, aromatic principles,
and is exceedingly valuable incidentally,
being cooling, laxative, and useful in vari-
GUS inhsmmatory diseases.
During season Of great scarcity in Eng
land, apples were used as common food by
the laborers, and it was asserted by them
that they were superior to potatoes, or, In
other words, they could ''stand their work"
on baked apples without meat; but apotato
diet required meat, or some other as sub
stantial food, to enable them to sustain
themselves. On the continent Of Europe,
especially in France and Germany, and
wherever the apple is easily raised, it is
used in its season as common food by the
lsboring classes; and why not in the United
States, where It is one of the commonest
and most easily raised of cultivated
fruits? One of the great troubles
is the great distance between the producer
and the consumer. Our fruits OF all kinds as
rule, go through so many hands between
the producer and consumer, and so many
large profits are consumed therein, that by
the time they reach the masses, the price is
SO enhanced that they necessarily become
luxuries, and out of the reach of the poorer
classes, until becoming partially decayed,
they are slaughtered to street peddlers, and
the loss pocketed by the producer.
This article was melted by the fact that
in attempting to buy peaches of commission
men on West Lake street, Chicago, we
were as g rule, asked $1.00 and Sl.10 per
box, when the real market value was go to
75c at the retailers, and this may also ap-
ply to other fruits. We have before stated
that we believed that the prolific fruit sea-
sons that we occasionally have, were an
advantage to the fruit raiser, since It
placed good fruits at fair prices within the
reach of the working masses, and there
by created taste for them, that would be
remembered thereafter. This we believe
to be true, but it cannot be brought about
by dealers holding consignments until they
partially decay, and then slaughtering them
to street peddlers.
What the raisers want is market for
their produce at remunerative rates; what
the consumer wants, is chance to buy
these products at fair prices. When this IS
brought about there will not be so much
either of absolute losses of originally good
fruit, nor longing for it among the great
mass Of the consumers who are not per-
mitted to get it until it is on the high road
to decay.
There is no fruit that is capable Of so
multifarious changes in its amer OF being
served, as the apple, none so universal 10
its adaptation to climate; none so eagerly
craved by the multitude. Why then should
its use not be universal