The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1881-02-16
The Trafac in Dried Fruits.

n
The perishable nature of all kinds Of
fruit has led to the employment OF
many methods for its preservation, the
most primitive of which is probably
that of drying, Although recent i'm.
provements in canning processes have
created an increased demand for canned
fruits, the market for the dried article
is brisk every year. Many commercial
firms in New York deal almost exclu-
sively in dried fruits, or make this article
leading speciality. Besides the demand
for dried fruits in that market, there is
every year large demand for export to
foreign countries. Dealers also do q
large trade with the Western States and
Territories. In many of these, es-
pecially the later settled districts, farm
ers have not had time TO grow orchards
as yet, andso must buy their fruit, both
fresh and preserved. Dried fruit is also
much used in the mining regions, being
easily transported; and the miner must
often take his choice between dried
apple pie or none at all.
Dried peaches, berries, plums and
cherries, fnd good market in the
Western States, and are made into pies,
puddings and sauce. Few of these
smaller fruits are exported, the foreign
demand being chiefly for apples. OF
these there were exported in October of
last year 1888 O44 pounds, and in the
first ten months of the year, 4,4e9, 1856
pounds. The export trade has in
creased largely, OF late, as will be seen
by the record of 1874, when only
1902. 7Q2 pounds were exported. In
1915 the exports rose to $500, ,535 pounds,
and last year when the apple crop was
much less than the present year, there
were exported s, 1895, ,25S pounds. France,
Germany, Belgium and England are all
using more dried apples this year than
usual. This is result of the general
failure of the apple crop in those coun-
tries, and also of the unusually low
prices in this country. Evaporated "
fruit, which sold last year from thirteen
to sixteen cents pound, now sells at
from six to eight cents. Common
fruit, which last year bl ought from
seven to nine cents, now brings only
from four and one-half to five and one
half cents.
On account of the general failure of
the grape crop as well as the apple crop
in France, the distillers in that country
are using large quantities of dried ap-
Piles for the manufacture of brandy. The
common grades of apples are preferred
for this purpose, especially Southern
fruit, which is said to yield ten per cent.
more alcohol than ordinary fruit. An
import duty of one-half cent pound
was TO be levied on dried apples in
France after January l. Previously,
dried apples have been on the free list in
that country. The exporting of the or
dinary stock tends to keep the market
firm, and dealers are generally confident
of good prices. The English market
will take little except evaporated apples,
and it is only within few years that
any have been shipped there; but the
demand now is steadily increasing. For
the German market fruit dried in quar-.
ters is preferred. "Sun dried apples
are about the only kind shipped tO Con-
tinental Europe.
The "evaporated" apples are dried
very quickly, by artificial heat, in a
carefully constructed apparatus. Alter
being peeled, cored and sliced trans
versely into thin rings the fruit is sub
jected to the fumes OF sulphur, which
causes the white color to be retained in
drying. So effectually does this fumi-
cation arrest decay that quantities OF
the apples may be left several days be-
lOIG uTyluB WlJuOub luJulys INdpO-
rated" apples are generally packed in
wooden boxes containing about fifty
pounds. The common grades are
packed in barrels.
All of the older States send more or
less dried apples to this market. New
York State takes the lead, and Ohio and
Indiana comes next. Tennessee and
other States In the Southwest also sen6
large quantities. Dried peaches ant
blackberrieS come in large part from
North Carolina. Peaches are also dried
by the evaporation process, and there is
some demand for them in the English
market. Although there was a very
large yield of apples last year, dealers
say that there was not correspondingly
large amount dried. The reasons given
are, that driers generally anticipated
that large quantities would be dried and
that prices in consequence would be
low; accordingly they were afraid tc
engage in the business very largely. II
is also stated that the cold weather
coming so early in the season destroyed
many apples that otherwise would have