Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-09-21
With Proper Facilities, Much
of Loss on Apples Might
Be Saved
LATE WINTER FRUIT SCARCE
Iowa Orchards, However,, Are Pro-
ducins Great Quantities of Fall APP
plies, Particularly in Northern Pari
of the State-Two Problems oil
Economic Importance Presented -
Results of Experiments.
Special to Times-Republlcan.

| Special to TimesRepublican.
Ames, Sept 21.-Iowa orchards are
| producing superabundance of fail
apples and a propbrtionate scarcity OF
late winter fruit. This is particularly
| the case in the northern half of the
state, where there is great scarcity
| of hardy varieties of good winter
| apples This condition presents two
problems of economic Importance, the
cold storage of fall varieties thereby
lengthe ming their season and making
it possible to distribute the crop to
more distant markets and also at bet
ter prices to the grower, and the stor-
age of fall sorts for local market and
home consumption in winter as sub
stitute for late varieties. The aggre-
gate amount of fall apples which an
nually goes to waste in Iowa is enor-
nous. With ample storage facilities
and proper methods of handling the
fruit both before and after it is
stored, there can be no doubt that
much of this loss might be prevented
and thousands of dollars which are
sent out OF the state would remain
in the hands of the Iowa fruit grower.
While it Is we'll known that the
supply of winter apples from the
orchards in Iowa does not meet the
demand for home consumption, yet
few II any realize the extent to which
apples are imported into Iowa from
other states. From inquiry, among the
leading lines of railroads as to the
number of barrels shipped in from
October 1, 1904, to July |, 1905, and
also from the dealers, it is estimated
that during the period referred to the
cities of Iowa bought from outside
Of the state, 364,SO0 barrels of apples
which at the conservative figure of
cost OF $4,000. It should also be re-
membered that this refers only to the
the urban population, which represents
but ore-th third of the total population
Of the state.
1t has been clearly demonstrated by
carefully conducted cold storage ex-
periments, that many of the fall vari-
ties OF apples can be kept two and
three months beyond their. normal pc
Rod. in first class condition. A varie-
ty varies much in its storage quality
under different soil and climatic con-
ditions, and while the leading COM
mercial varieties grown in Iowa have
already been tried in storage, in older
fruit growing sections, yet these tests
do no: apply to Iowa conditions and
the value of Iowa fruit for storage has
not yet been determined.
The horticultural section of the Iowa
experiment station, in cooperation
with the division of pomology of the
United States department of agricul-
ture is taking up the Investigation of
a number of important problems con-
necteG with the cold storage of apples
grown in this state. Observations are
to be made on the keeping quality of
different varieties of Iowa apples, as
related to the age of the tree, the type
of soil upon which it is grown, ,Wheth-
er it is grown under sod or under
clean tillage, the degree of maturity of
the fruit, the question of immediate VS..
delayed storage, Of wrapped VS.. I'M
wrapped fruit, and of a small package
VS.. barrels. The work will be con-
Quoted by Mr.. II. j.. Eustace, expert
in fruit storage Investigations of the
division of ponrology, in cooperation
with Professor S. A. Beach of the
Iowa experiment station.