The herald., 1895-05-16
California Fruits in the Markets
of the World
METHODS OF PREPARATION
How English Firms Manufacture Apricot
Marmalade
Methods That Tight Be Adopted ana INDUSTRIES
Which Should Be Established on
the Fruit Farms

Itisno doubt proper for the California
fruit grower to keep watchrul eye upon
the eastern market and desirable that he
should neglect no opportunity OF intro
ducing his product to new markets; ous
il might be better to devote some atten-
tion to tue preparation OF his fruit Tor
sale direct to the consumer In manufact-
ured form. A correspondent OF the San
Francisco Call makes some very pertinent
and suggestive remarks in recent letter
to his paper.
mot long ago." he says, "while on a
visit to one of the minor cities OF the
Atlantic states | entered large store kept
bv friend.' In the store he saw
mum Der OF tubs bearing the label Cali
fornia apricots .. and the proprietor in
formed him that he prepared the article
himself by stewing dried apricots re-
ceiyed from California and packing the
compound in the form OF a sort OF marm-
alade. in tubs, and that he sold the tubs
IN large mum bers to smaller dealers. The
price which he received from the retail
dealers w;x twice the cost OF the dri Cd ap-
ricots. ana the retalil merchants sold the
product at considerable advance. 1t is
cNluellb THAT III thC pAoNo~eAN -
Gle the enterprising manufacturer by the
necessary addition of water and some su-
gar at least doubled the weight OF the
dried apricots. and tnat as he charged
for this compound twice as much as he
paid for the dried article. he received
four times the original cost to him.
Commenting on these facts the Call
says: 1.-THE situation is ludicrous. 1t is
hardly more so. however, than the COM
mon knowledge that the delicious apricot
marmalade made by Cross Il blackwell
of London, and consumed with much
gusto by G cures east and west is made
after the exact fashion OF the New Eng
land grocer, though possibly with little
more skill. That is to say. Cross Il
Blackwell buy apricots grown and dried
in California. pay the charges of trans
porting them 5000 miles to London. man.
ufacture them into marmalade and ship
this confect 5000 miles back to San Fran
cisco, where buying it we pay the trans
portation charge of 1900 miles on the
fruit and 5000 miles on the water and the
glass or stone packages, besides very
comfortable profit to the manufacturers
and to the various dealers through whose
hands the product has passed. The alb
surdity of all this is both pitiful had ais
graceful. The apricot grows in very few
places in the world. 1t is nearer like the
banana than any other fruit in delicacy OF
flavor and richness of nurritive elements.
Ii California grew nothing but apricots, ii
would still be the most fortunate section
of the union. for this is the rarest and
most valuable of all the fruits grown out.
side of the tropics. Seemingly it is only
Californians who do not realize how valu-
able it is. Marmalade is not the only or
even the best, though the dalntiest, form
in which dried apricots are prepared,
marmalade is a confection, whereas the
v,Af1 10, long fr,,if 1>,,%
is nutritious food as we'll. In this last
regard it stands practically alone among
the fruits produced IN the United Stares.
This gives it a special value which prob
ably not one eastern consumer in hun
dred Thousand understands. The work of
educating the people of the east in this
regard is one that might be undertaken
by Calitornians with great profit to them
selves"
There is nothing new in the orange
situation, except perhaps, the disagree
ment between the Tustin ASSOCIATION and
Earl & Co. The firm named has
handled the fruit controlled by the Tustin
association, and the net result seems to
be a lawsuit Of generous proportions,
which, like most suits, promises to end
to the satisfaction of nobody most direct
ly concerned. Orders continue to arrive
for exchange oranges. which now embrace
Mediterranean sweets, bloods st.
Michaels and seedlings. All shipments
are iced. The indications promise pretty
thorough clean up of the crop.
= =
Straws from Clapp & Co.'S weekly mar
ket letter: About one fourth of our rail-
way system is IN the south. equaling AZ.
600 miles. Since the trolley electric was
introduced about six years ago 9008 miles
of surface railroads have been erected or
changed to that system. Only 2243 miles
still use horses, 652 miles are run by ca
bles, GA by steam motors; 81 lines are
carrying mail. 55 are handling freight 35
have started express service. Evidently
electric service will revolutionize trans
portation interests. Imported goods free
Of duty for the first six months of the
new law equaled 47.9 per cent for core.
spending six months the previous year
under the old law. Dutiable imports were
$l3l, 9s7, o46, against $lS5, 29S, 927, previo us
year. Exports decreased $47, 277, 056 or
1863 per cent.