Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-04-12
Apples as Food.

Ocrats Paris, Me.
Apples as Food.
September q next will be known as
"Apple day" at the st. Louis Exposition,
designated as such by the superintend-
ent of horticulture at the exposition.
The object of this designation is to pro-
mote the interests of the apple as food
and incidentally to call attention to the
exposition. Ii is said that on the day
designated every man, woman and child
in attendance will be presented with
three or four fine apples wrapped in
| tissue paper, on which will be printed
the local habitation and name of each
apple presented. The person, therefore,
eating the apples will know the name
and the place where they came from.
An exchange, in speaking of this dis
tribution of apples, says it will not be a
very simple affair, as it is expected that
at least 100000 people will be in attend
ance on the day named. This will re-
quire over 100000 apples, or twenty
carloads of $50 barrels each. We are
not informed as to whether this new de-
parture in entertainment at expOsitions
is to be really carried out, or whether 1t
| is simply one of the many devices origi-
mated for advertising purposes, but in
either case anything that calls attention
to the healthful results of apple-eating
and promotes the use of apples as food
is to be commended. The American
Apple Growers congress is engaged in
systematic exploitation of the apple that
it may be adopted more generally as
regular food. Ii is healthful either raw
or cooked in one of hundred different
ways, and in many sections of the coun-
try can be obtained at prices within the
reach of all, with perhaps an occasional
season when scarcity makes it excess
lively high in price.
Not only those who buy apples but
those who grow them, or could grow
them, need to be taught their healthful
qualities and the advantages to be de-
rived from their liberal use as food.
Every farmer and every person owning
land in IN apple-growing section should
have an abundance of this fruit at least
ten months in the year except in sea-
sons when the crop fails. They are
especially valuable for children, who
should have access TO them freely, and
they should be upon the table every
meal, either raw or cooked in some form.
Eating an apple inst before retiring at
night is recommended by physicians, as
we'll as before breakfast in the morning.
The value of apples as food does not
consist so much in their nutritive quail
ties as in their medicinal qualities.
They act upon the human system as 4
tonic and stimulus to the digestive
organs, protecting the person from dis
eases of various kinds that find lodg-
ment in consequence of sluggish diges-
ton or debilitated system on account OF 1t.
In this connection it may be proper to
say that apples would be more popular
in the farmers diet if more attention
were given to growing those of the finest
quality and to storing them in way to
retain their crisp condition and fine
natural flavor. There is as much differ
ence in No. l apples of the same variety
as there is in what is termed first quality
in any article of subsistence. An apple
from an old neglected orchard is as
different from an apple of the same vari-
ETY. grown in Young, well-cared for
orchard as is the difference in steak from
an old COW and from young, thrifty
animal. In appearance one may be as
good as the other, but when the test by
eating is applied the difference is notice
able. Perhaps the average person does
not appreciate this difference, but when
the use of apples as food becomes more
universal than now the desirable quail
ties of the properly grown fruit will be
better recognized The good qualities
of apples are also enhanced by storing
them in as low temperature as can be
done without freezing, and by having
the air excluded from them. When
stored in open boxes or barrels in a
warm cellar they not only begin to de-
cay sooner but lose much of their crisp
qualities and fine flavor. The best re-
suits are obtained by wrapping each
apple in paper and keeping it in tightly
closed box or barrel. Even if the wrap
ping is omitted there will be great ad-
vantage in having them tightly closed in
the package and kept in a cool place.
We will not undertake to enter into a
discussion of the various ways of cook
ing apples, for they are added to each
year Some of these have no deleterious
effect upon the health-giving qualities
of the fruit and make them more palat-
able as an article of food than in their
raw state. In fact they are more gener
ally recognized as food when cooked
than when served in their natural con-
dition, but in reality they may be as
valuable in one form as the other. A
popular dish at the most expensive hotels
and restaufsnts selected by people of
the most epicurean tastes from a long
list of expensive viands is baked apples
and cream, which almost any farmer $
family can have during the entire year
at no great cost. Other forms OF cooked
apples are eagerly sought for by the peo-
pie who live at hotels and who appreciate
the difference between healthful and un-
healthful food. But after all that can
be said, probably there is no form or no
time that will enable the eating of ap-
pies TO cause so beneficial results as in
their natural state at any meal or before
retiring at night.
The strenuous age in which we are
living has had tendency to lead us
away from the simpler and better kinds
of food upon which the people lived in
an earlier and different age. The rapid
pace which fierce competition in every
business and profession requires has had
its effect in substituting indigestible
articles of food for the natural and
health-giving food of our ancestors.
One of the ways in which this tendency
can be checked is in the liberal use of
fruit, and especially of apples. Any
influence that secures this should be en-
couraged, whether the advertising of
great exposition or the better cultiva-
ton and care of the apple orchard is
used as basis. Eat apples freely and
give the children an abundant supply OF
good ripe fruit at all hours of the day
and all seasons of the year,-MirrOr and