Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1918-11-01
ard about it and tried the same

lSdI u dDOut IL olu tllCu tuC SoAC
hing in their homes. The wa
er wasn't hot enough and the
skins wouldn't slip. They
bought | must be using magic
Or I've in the batll-principally
I've. And the first thing | knew
there was an inspector here set
Ting this question for himself.
Il took him through the yard
just as | am taking you, only at
that time we were working full
blast. 1t didn't take him long
to see that live steam and COM
mon sense were making those
skins slip"
Only ripe peaches are used fer
this process. They are put into
half-bnshtl wire baskets and i'm
mersed in the Steam-heated bath; /
taken out, plunged into cold wa.
ter and passed to tables where
women and girls slip the skins,
seed and halve the fruit and drop
it into ordinary milk cans. These
cans are then taken to the ice
cream plant and put into refrig-
orators. Later the fruit is crush
ed, sweetened and worked into
ice-cream.
He told me, with grave doubts
as to whether or not | would be-
lieve the statement, that last
season his force of girls treated
l., 500 bushels of peaches in three
days. "A woman, once she has
acquired the knack, can peel, pit
and halve from fifteen to eigh-
teen bushels day."
tried to get him to tell me
how much more profit there is in
marketing his peach crop in this
way than through the regular
channels of express shipments or
ref riger ator cars. But he
wouldn't. He claimed, and right
| ly, that he had discovered and
i developed this particular market
in his section and that he wanted
to keep it as long as possible
| free from competition.
i Last year he hit upon the idea
of selling a part of his apple
crop to a commercial evaporation.
and he was equity reticent when
j. asked him how much better
this had pauned out than ordi-
nary straight marketing.
| Mr.. Gravely didn't seem to be
worried greatly over the threat
ened labor shortage he figured
| lie could gather up enough of
people to see him through. and
of course he is figuring on using
a certain amount of soldier labor
that has been promised by the
| Department of Labor. Up to this
| year he has made 1t a custom to
use ten or twelve college boys
during their vacation periods.
i His orchards are we'll sprayed,
we'll cultivated, splendidly prun-
Jed. The care he has given them
has been justified over and over
again. Last year he shipped
more than 5000 barrels of apples
| to domestic markets. One ten
acre block of apples between six
teen and seventeen years old
turned out l, 200 barrels of prime
fruit III addition to the culls.
Another ten-acre block of peaches
and apples-seven year peaches
interplanted with nine year ap.
ples-yielded nearly 800 barrels
of apples and 500 bushels of
peaches.
Mr.. Gravely looks to see the
demand and prices good this
year for apples ; i'll fact he takes
the stand that as long as a man
produces quality fruit the mar
kets and prices will take care of
themselves.
Growers Of export apples are
by no means so numerous in
Shenandoah County as in Fred
erick County and other sections
of Virginia, but it is safe bet
that just as soon as something
like normal conditions obtain IN
the direction of overseas ship.
ping, there are to be a great |
many apple crops exported from
this county out of orchards
whose fruit has never before
sought anything but domestic
markets.