The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-03-15

C|DEASIGURES
Witcher's Statement se-
piled to by Head of
Makers
THINKS REMARKS
WE'RE MISLEADING
Total Apple Crop of New Hampshire In
sufficient to Produce Anywhere Near
Amount of Cider Mentioned by State
Prohibition Inspector.

Prohibition Inspector.
Editor of The Reformer -
In recent issue of your paper ap-
peared the following under a Manches-
ter, " H, dateline: George Ii.
Whitcher, federal prohibition director,
discussed cider manufacture by New
Hampshire farmers in his review of the
operation of the Volstead act up to
Jan. l. Three hundred mills in this
state, he, said. are capable of turning
out 2JG.000 casks of cider. which pro-
duce booze equal to half a million
casks of beer or containing as much al
cohol as 2JO00 casks of whiskey. Pro-
hibition cannot play favorites. Cider is
an intoxicating beverage. Homemade
cider and home-brew stand on the same
footing. If one is right both are, and
vice versa. As a matter of fact both
are wrong and violate the national prohi-
bition act There is one safe use for
cider and that is to be made into vine
gar, aad this law provides for it, .
In presenting the above problem to
the public, the worthy schoolmaster has
entered well into the length thereof. but
he evidently did not take into consider
alton the breadth and thickness thereof
/ take it for granted that Mr. Whit
cher argued that the 2J0,000 casks of
! cider as set forth in his problem were
( to be made from apples.
We cider-makers figure 30 gallons
as q cask of cider. Our bureau of crop
estimates at Washington states that the
largest crop of apples produced in New
/ Hampshire during the past FIVE years
was in 1916. when the crop was esti-
mated at 1,J96,000 bushels. I'VE cider
makers" know that an average of three
gallons of juice from a bushel of apples
/ throughout the season is as much as
can be expected Ard we further know
I that quite a quantity of the new juice
will be consumed as beverage and for
/ culinary purposes before the remainder
reaches the conversational stage. and
some, possibly, might reach the vinegar
stage.
But we will endeayor to be fair in
solving Mr.. Witcher's problem. So we
will assume to conserve the states en-
tire apple crop of 1916 by way of 'sye
cld-time cider barrel" Now 1886, 900
bushels of apples yielding an average of
! three gallons per bushel would equal A.
4 7SS,000 gallons of juice. In Mr.. Whit
cher's problem the 100000 casks of
cider, figuring 80 gallons to cask.
|; would equal 12,500,000 gallons of cider.
i 1t appears to me that taking United
States statistics for a basis, and con-
Il serving the entire apple crop OF New
hampshire by way of ''Old Hard Cider
!, Mr.. Whitcher would be short in his cider
account to the amount of 7.712.000 gal
} Ions. Possibly Mr.. Whitcher in his prob
lem reduced the size of the cask-per-
haps to the 10-gallon limit.
| Out of fairness TO Mr. Whitcher and
his problem I'VE er-makers of New
Hampshire" will admit the capability of
producing the 12.500.000 gallons of the
inspiring juice of the forbidden fruit of
the tree of knowledge, provided the raw
material is obtainable. I do not think
! Mr.. Whitcher believes New Hampshire
/ to be an appIe-inlporting state
| People who consider that the manu-
| facture of cider for use in the home ex-
: clusively violates the national prohibi-
, tion act should read sections /, 3, and
2 - of Title ii of said act as set forth in
regulation 60; also read prohibition
minleograph 81 and 1T, all of which
ay be obtained from our federal prohibit
tion commissioner at Washington.
(Sjgnedl
BRYANT /. STREETER,
President New Hampshire
Cider Makers Association
, Z. S. If the cider mills of New HaInp.
shire We're sausage factories, how many
, yards of '.sassinges'' would they be ca
, pable of turning cut in a season, breadth
: and thickness omitted?
HinSdale. n H. March L.