The Opelousas courier., 1899-03-04
AMERICAS APPLE CROP.
CHANGED CONDITIONS CAUSED BY
THE LARGE WESTERN ORCHARDS.

"eSnoqs discovered TO
Utilizing the Fruit-waste fof Jellies
Everyone at all familiar with th,
fruit industry will remember tx,
heavy depression that obtained
throughout the east in 1896, when thu
tremendous crop of apples almost an.
minated values, says the Boston
Transcript. Along the seaboard 0,
Massachusetts the writer remembers
seeing placards hung from trees offer.
ing the apples at Is cents per barrel,
cider apples Is and 2Ocents delivered
at III mills, and fine hand-picked
Baldwins delivered on the cars at &C
tents a barrel Considering that the
average cost of picking apples is from
10 to u cents per barrel, sorting,
heading and getting to the railroad
cost . cents more, and the average
cost Of barrels II cents, it does not
take much figuring to estimate the
profit and loss to the grower who is
iorcs5 to dispose Of his crop at 40 or
80 cehts per barrel.
But since that exceptional eason
OF low prices, when all the markets at
home and abroad were glutted with
apples, when even good vinegar was
selling at 10 cents a gallon and cider
could be had almost for the asking at
any big cider mill, changes of great
Importance have been effected in the
apple market.
Before that eventful year the grow
ers of fine apples in the east could
usually depend upon the exporters to
take most Of their surplus crop, but
in the season of 1896 they suddenly
awoke to the fact that even this mar
ket was being closed to them, or
fiercely disputed by the western ap-
pie growers. The west had become
an important factor in the apple prob
lem. They had been quietly plant
ing orchards down in Kansas. Mis-
souri, and Nebraska, and, like all other
phases OF western farming, they were
on a large scale. Twenty, thirty,
fifty, one hundred acres we're planted;
then these numbers we're doubled,
and the output became so enormous
when the trees reached maturity that
the local markets were swamped by
the fruit and the growers had to rush
their apples to the east and to Europe
to save themselves from bankruptcy.
It was this sudden food of fruit which
had been growing perceptibly year by
year, but which reached it's climax in
1896, that startled the growers of the
east and finally demoralized the apple
markets Of England and the United
States.
1t was no use saying that the east
ern apples had a finer and sharper
favor than those from the west and
that they were better packed and
shipped for Europe. The whole in
was paralyzed by the surplus
Of fruit. More than this, the growers
realized that there would no longer
be "off years" in the apple supply.
There were enough orchards planted
in the west, the eastern states and
Canada to make a crop large enough
for all apparent needs, ever though
half the trees failed to produce every
other year.
There was only one thing to do.
The outlet had to be enlarged. Either
new markets had to be found or
1ew methods discovered for utiliz-
the fruit. Along both of these
ines scientific and practical business
nen have been working, and the re-
'ult is there is a wider market for
he fruit this year and the machinery
or %disposing of the fruit was never in
'uch perfect order.
To begin with, the factories for the
Of cheap ~jellies have
rapidly, and today there
re about 1870 of them in the United
with an annual capacity of be-
ween $50, 000, 900 and 200, 600, 900
In the apple season all of
hese factories run night and day and
hey consume an enormous amount Of
aw material. Originally these fac
cries we're established for manufac-
uring ~jellies out of the apple waste
hat is, the cores and Feelings of the
which the canneries and evap-
rators threw away. From these cores
nd Feelings the juice was expressed
nd this became the foundation prin-
iple of all the apple %jellies. In 1896
be surplus of apples greatly in
reased the output of the evaporators
nd c%anneries, and it was due to this
hat lore jelly factories were estab-
It is estimated that there
1ere about 1900 carloads of waste
emit to these jelly factories. In time
he offerings of apples SO large
hat the jelly factories purchased or
mary apples direct from the orch
rds and turned them into apple
yrup.
Incidentally, a false impression con
many of the cheap %jellies, es-
those made of apples, should
9 corrected. They are not unwhole-
ome or injurious. They are not made
'om chemical compounds, simply be-
ause it is cheaper to make them from
ae juice Of the apple cores, Feelings.
nd second grade apples. These iel-
es, except in quality Of taste, are as
rule just as wholesome IS the more
xpensive brands, the only difference
eng that the latter are made from
rye, good-sized apples. It is only
.ir that this truth should be gener-
ly known, for the factories are rap
lily increasing the market demand
II our apples.
Pure apple syrup is made at these
~ctories and put on the market under
lrious names. The syrup, when
avored a little, has a richer taste
lon a nnnd daal Of Tho dilutod and