The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1893-10-26
OUR RURAL TOPICS
Soma Practical Suggestions for Gu
Agricultural Readers

All fruit-growers, and more especially Of the
| apple, know that much Of their fruit Is unhD
for market, being either woFmy, specksd,
scabby, knotty, or small. Now, says J. B. Ds-
rand, all this fruit can be utilized by the eVap-
orator, and placed upon the market at -
| munerative prices It is not necessary to have
a large establishment to accomplish this result
There are driers with their capacities ranging
from one to two bushels Of green apples per
day up to thousands.
The work can be done Just as well and -
cheaply on 10-bushel machine as in any a
the large factories, and my experience hiss
been that they are the least expensive. Often
it will pay to evaporste the whole crop. have
often realized more for eulls than for the ship
ping fruit.
One hand can run 10 bushel drier, with y
cents worth Of fuel, and make so pounds Of
| white fruit per day, which, at 10 cents per
| pound, about the average price, would nee
$475, making nearly so cents bushel, ineIud-
| ing the days work, and at this years prices
would be over 20 cents, and il the waste ID
dried, almost dollar.
Again, one important point thus gained 10
culling out your shipping fruit, making 70
l
market price for it.
/ Market only the best, eVsporate the rest.
| Thus you would avoid the breaking down the
markets for the green fruit. This is always
done by inferior stock being run on the marksA
and never by good, choice fruit We can, 81
nearly all times, see apples quoted on the
market at 70 cents to SIPS per barrel Thsss
represent loss to the grower. All of this kind
/ shcnld never go on the market but in the
| evaporation. The world ia your market fog
eyaporated fruit; you have nearly four barrels
| of apples in 50-pound box that can be shipped
just as safely to Alaska, China or India as to 81
| Louis, and you need be in no hurry to market
| it. Next Spring is as good as this Fall, and
| often better prices are obtained.
| When properly packed, and with proper
storage, it can be kept for years as fresh and
sweet as when first prepared, except little lO@
in color, bat even this may be overcome by cold
| storage.
If prices are as low as they were two years
ago, when it was worth only from four to sin
cents a pound, and the waste and chop less
| than one cent it can safely be kept over unsH
| there is q shortage like the present, when Is
cents can be obtained for the white fruit, and
| four to five cents for chop and waste. The
| chop is apples sliced just as they are withoat
any pairing or eoring, and dried; in this the
small and knOtty apples that cannot be pared
are used. The work is done quite rapidly with
a machine made for the purpose. Forty to 50
| bushels can be sliced in an hour by two banda
| One bushsl of apples will make 10 pounds Of
chop.
The waste is the skin, cores aud trimmings
from white fruit, which needs no other prepsr-
alton only TO put in the evaporatOr, dry it znd
pack in sacks or barrels ready for shipment. u
is used for making jeIlies. and usually brings
about one half cent more than the chop. Most
of the chop is, understand, shipped to Europs
and there manufactured into fine wines and
sent back to this country, and sold at from 81
to So a bottle. The price is therefore, greatly
influenced and governed by the grape crop in
the old country. Many thousands of toms ara
manufactured each year. Everything can Be
used, nothing wasted.
delegate said: / think still more can Be
done than the gentleman says. I evaporatsd
some I.400 pounds of fruit, which sold at -
cents per pound. / made use of every part q
the fruit except the wormy part. Vinegar was
made of the waste / sold some 10 or - barrels
at 20 cents per gallon, $3.50 per barrel Of -
gallons.
~ picked out the choicest to ship and svap-
grated the culls and seconds, which would have
damaged the whole lot if shipped together. The
vinegar apples made nearly as much money a
any. / Melted SS5, using a cider mill that cost
SIS. We use pear cOrer and slicer to prepare
the apples for drying. Wife and two little girla
did the work, apples aud wood being brought
to the house for them.
"SOme of the apples kept year and half
were as white and good when first put up.
No trouble to keep them five years. We used
about q tablespoonful of sulphur to half
bus5el. When dry We put the fruit right int
-four barrels and headed it up tight. Some kept
IL months are as nice and fresh as when pub
Up. They are better to cook than fresh fruit
as they don't require sugar, while fresh fruta
does.
ave pack them hot, right from the trsyA
IF they stand open. the miller will get int
them. Turn them from the tray into the bar
rel and keep them perfectly close. Just as sooa
as a barrel was full / headed it up"
The statistics Of yields of wheat in tha
United States very incomplete; but so far
as obtainable they point toward diminishing
returns. Some of the older agricultural reports
of Illinois and Ohio show this when compared
with the later ones. Because of reduced yields
and an increased tendency to disease. wheat in
suppanted by other crops. Fifteen years age.
when the journals were full of articles on the
bonanza farms of the Northwest, and the ex-
tnction of the small farmer was considered GER
tain, the average yield for the Dskotas was re-
ported much larger than now. Some of the
Eastern States give larger yields of wheat 70
the acre than the Western States. The wheat
area in the East is small, well titled, and prob
ably exceptionally fertile, because near the
many large towns and cities there is q much
larger supply Of stable manure than there is on
the prsiries. 1t is estimated that gradual
advance of five per cent. in the annual average
price of wheat in Chicago would cause an in-
crease of nearly one-ifth, or three bushels, il
the yield of wheat per acre in the Mississippi
Valley. 1t is also judged if the price Of wheas
were to advance permanently to 81 q bushel,
the present total annual production would Be
increased by more than one-half That the
soil could do this is shown by the experiments
with seeds, soils and fertilizers which Sir
John B. Lawes has been carrying on for 90
years at Rothamsted. One of his experiments
fields which has borne wheat every year for 50
years without fertilizing and without inter.
ruption, is now yielding more wheat per acre
than the average for the United States, or the
average for the whole world. Better culture IL
what is needed.
Wanted.