The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-03-31
GOOD APPLES RARE.
A Strange Falling on In This Great
American PrOdwct.

ttrom the New YORK sun.
IF you want Il rare fruit and don't mind
expense. buy apples, said the proprietor
of retail fri.it store that caters to New
York's most exclusive trade. 'Hothouse
grapes and winter Strawberries are COM
mon enough. but | give you my word,
half the time we can't get first-class APP
pies at any price.
Some of them look well enough. at
first, hut they haven't a good flavor and
they rot while you stand looking at them.
/ don't know what's wrong. The old or
chards are played out and new ones
haven't been planted to take their place,
and the trees that are bearing don't get
the proper care.
why, 1 can remember when delicious.
juicy. sound apples were drug the
market. Everyone kept a few barrels OF
sorting, the fruit was good all winter. I'd
like to see you try that now. We don't
even buy barrels of apples for our trade.
1t doesn't pay. The apples will not keep
until the barrel Is emptied.
Look at those pippins. We've had them
three days and they are speckled and
unattracttve already. The only good APP
pies we get come from Oregon They
are packed in small quantities in boxes.
and they keep fairly well. We've ham
died 1000 boxes of them this winter. and
we get from so cents to N:6o dozen.
What would our great-grandfathers have
thought if they had been asked TO pay
s1.60 a dozen for apples? I've paid 80
cents apiece for apples In Europe and
II something isn't done to improve our
orchards
IT'S a pity for more reasons than one
that apples are getting scarce. A physi-
clan was talking about it in here just the
other day. He will have apples no matter
what he has to pay for them, and he
says they are the most wholesome fruit
anyone can eat. His children are al
lowed to have all the apples they want,
and he says that II all children were al
lowed to eat apples whenever they felt
like 1t. there wouldn't be half so much
sickness among them.
Maybe that's one of the reasons chill
dren used to be healthier than they are
now. / remember when / was a young
ster | always had apples in my pockets,
and so did every other boy. but we
didn't often sec candy Then in the
evening at home there was always
big silver bowl of shiny apples on the
sitting room table and everybody in the
family ate at least one or two during the
evening. That sort of thing would bank
rupt millionaire nowadays.
This is rather an off season for fine
frIit-'between hay and grass as far
mers say. Some fruits are about played
out, but We manage to keep a pretty big
THE oranges have been unusually fine
Orange growers are improving their
grades right along. and this is a good
season. A comparatively new orange is
first favorite among epicures just now.
It's the King of Siam. Here's one. You
see it looks like big tangaripe with a
rough. loose skin. We are getting them
from Florida now. A little later they'll
come in from California.
There's another orange that has
jumped into New York popularity. all of
this little thing that looks like plum
dressed in orange skin. They are used
for furnishing and for salads, and then
they are preserved and candied. Three
years ago it was almost impossible to sell
fresh Kumquots here, save to confec-
TONERS, but some of the caterers took
them up, as salad relishes. and the swells
fancied them, and now We sell any guam
tity of them.
1.-The hothouse peaches aren't so good
as they should be this season, but then
one ought not to expect much of them.
after the trip they have to make. You
know we get them from Cape Town III
South Africa. They come by way of Eng
land. and we sell them for so a dozen.
Pretty soon dollhouse peaches will come
in from Massachusetts, and sell as low as
s. or Sc a dozen.
Home dollhouse grapes will soon be in
season too, but now We get our best not
house grapes from England Only two
wholesale dealers in the city are handling
the dollhouse grapes now. and they have
only about 100 pounds a week for all
their retail trade.
we can't buy fresh pears anywhere
this month. All the pears you see Come
from cold storage, and they aren't worth
a cent. though we have to charge big
Grape fruit is fine and cheap this sea
son, and pineapples are unusually good.
The pineapples are cheaper than they
used to be. too. You can get good one
for from 50 cents to 81. The early straw
berries are another out-Of-season fruit
that is inner in quality and lower IN price
than il was formerly. Florida berries
that used to sell for SIPS box are going
for 30 cents a box now. and they are
much larger and more delicious in flavor
than early berries used 10 be-
THE tomatoes have been the bother
some proposition this winter. They We
been shriveled and small and tasteless
vet they've brought big prices The only
decent ones we've been able TO get have
come from Canada, ana are worm 80
cents a pound.
Asparagus is plentiful. The long. green
dollhouse asparagus from Illinois is worth
ST. 80 a dozen lunches and the white hot
house asparagus grown around here
brings 80 a dozen punches. There are
seven stalks in a bunch. you know.
Mushrooms? Why ell the world seems
to have gone to raising mushrooms late
" The market is flooded with them.
Luckily. their popularity seems be in
creasing with the supply. But after all,
the price of first-cass selected mush-
rooms hasn't dropped. They are still
worth 81 a pound though you can get all
the small mushrooms you want for %
cents a pound. American cooks are using
the fresh mushrooms more and more in
| sauces and seasoning.
I'm fact, the demand for all sorts OF
out-of-season vegetables and fruits is IN
creasing enormously in this country.
don't know whether We are becoming
more eXtraVagant or whether the class
| that can afford luxury is increasing "a
| pidly. hut where ten years ago one per
| son bought the kinds of winter fruit and
vegetables We sell a hundred buy them
| now