Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-11-01
Where are the Apples?

Where are the Apples?
There is always an effort made by the
agricultural press to keep apples as
prominently before the public as possi-
BILE, and of late there is a move to get
the children who live away from the Or
chards into line for apple eating. l
must believe that the latter effort is not
needed, if | have merely to recall my
own childhood and the fact that there
were never too many apples in sight for
any child | ever saw, including myself.
The difficulty lies more with the pro-
ducer than anywhere else, / am quite
sure. If apples are put in the way OF
the buying public in acceptable form
and at fair price, they will find mar
ket readily enough.
Let me give your readers glance al
the principal retail market of Buffalo as
it appears to-day. 1t is, no doubt, much
the same as other northern markets.
The visitor would be astonished at the
quantity of southern fruits and peaches
piled up there, all selling at low prices
and all set out in the most attractive
fashion, with an Italian vendor crying
the southern fruits and some one Of
more local origin looking after the
peaches. But the apples-well, there
are few in sight, but nobody pays any
attention to them, and they sell at prices
that fairly drive the buyer to fruits that
grew thousand miles away.
complain that ] cannot buy the ap-
plies, and am told that good Twenty
Ounce, which is about all that can be
found outside of the merest culls or
cooking apples" as they are called,
cost the retailer all the way up to 81 a
bushel, and are, of course, scarce at that.
Good organges sell at retail AS low as 10
cents a dozen, lemons for the same, and
bananas at 10 cents. What chance is
there for apples? Even pears have been
pretty low, and as for peaches they are
about on a par with apples, sometimes
selling even lower. Growers are offer
ing apples by the two quart measure, as
they do sweet potatoes or any other
product that is generally high and sells
in small quantities as luxury.
What is the matter with the apple?
Buffalo is big city, only al hour Or SO
frum the best apple section in the world,
and vet literally starving for apples,
with every other fruit that any northern
market affords underselling them, no
matter If it is raised in California or on
the other side of the Atlantic. believe
that to-day if the money that goes for
our foreign fruits was al least half put
into intelligent apple raising, the returns
would be much better than they are now,
for the situation to-day is no exception.
Our markets are year after year more de-
ficieut in good apples than in any other
well-known fruit.
Early apples rank with the berries
and other small fruits in the short time
from the blossom TO the money in hand
for the fruit, aud they do not need the
care in the line of cultivation that ber- |
ries do. They blossom IN May and are
in the market in August. Their season
is much longer than anything else, for
they merge into the fall and winter crop,
that lasts till warm weather again. |
am aware that complaint is made that
the early aud fall apple is perishable,
and il is sometimes said that the demand
is not large, but as to the first objection
il need merely be said that they are not
so perishable as peaches and will stand
some rough handling, which peaches
will not, and as to the price, it so often
happens that fairly prohibitive price is
asked for good summer or fall apples
that nothing needs to be done but to
look into the case and see why they can
not be placed on the market at prices
that will compete with other fruits.
am aware that Buffalo is unusually
we'll situated for the handling of fruit
from distant points, especially south
ward. 1t is about the end of the regular
northward shipping route, and when
other markets on the route reject car
because of an overstock and send it on,
it often has to be put down at Buffalo,
market crowded or market bare, so that
it sometimes happens that prices break
badly; but here is fine point for the
apples. They need not be shipped at al
till there is a market for them. do
not know whether it is feasible to put
early apples into cold storage to hold
them back against an overstock. AS a
rule, 1t has appeared to me there is al
ways a scarcity of them.
So seldom do we see apples of any
sort, early or late, displayed in our mar
kets as other fruits are, that we seldom |
know how to buy any but the very best
known sorts by name. What are We to
do about il? Our apples are steadily |
making their way into Europe, but they |
will not make remarkable headway, for |
Europe, oddly enough, does not eat fruit
as we do. 1t prefers meat, and If it can |
not buy that eats bread, while straw
berries may be seen only now and then
on the table, when, as saw them last
year at four cents quart in London, the
fiuest fruit | ever saw, We visitors, at
least were crying for them.
There has always been something
wrong in the home apple trade. As
say, it looks as if the producer was most
ly to blame. He can at least compete
with California and Florida and Italy, ii
he will set about it. Why does he not
do it?-John w. Chamberlin in Country