The Monmouth inquirer., 1924-01-10

ut seems shame, one neighb r
said to her, but 1t will be about as
well for you to let those apples har.
vest themselves
Against suck waste OF nature 3
bounty, however, GATHERINGS New
England thrift revolted. She began
to look into the apple problem; and
the result of her study Of It is worth
recording.
she purchased no barrels, and the
only help she hired was hny to push
a wheelbarrow. She herself, with
Uncle Horace and Eunice, went out to
the trees to gather up the fruit. The
boy wheeled the apples in. two bushels
at load, and slowed them in bins
built up In two rooms in the house
where, later, they could be kept from
freezing by means of a stove in the
cellar beneath.
Catherine had thought this all out
in advance, and she had sent off for
four "evaporators," payment for which
used nearly all her remaining money,
Carelessly dried apples, on strings,
brings no more than six or eight cents
a pound, but nicely sliced, "evaporat-
ed" apple always commands much
better price. She had resolved to
put the whole crop of Baldwins into
evaporated apple.
In almost every rural neighborhood,
village or small town there is sure
to be some old "aunty," grandma"
or widow in INDECENT circumstances,
who has outlived the most OF her
earthly ties, and must go to the
town farm" or s1bsist on sufferance
with some grudging relative. Life
grows very dreary to these old per-
sons. There seems to be no place for
them In cases where few hundred
dollars can be raised for them, they
sometimes go to an "old ladies'
home"
Within three miles Of the Edwards
homestead there were two of these
old souls, aunt Netty" Stiles and
Grandma" Frost, who were by no
means helpless or feeble, but had
merely outliyed their welcome on the
earth.
Catherine first made the old farm.
house dining room coy and warm.
and then invited Aunt Netty and
Grandma Frost to come and sit with
her mother and Eunice and slice ap-
PIES She offered them seventy-f1ve
cents a week and board. Moreover,
she took them all ixae0 her confidence.
and told them her plane for saving
the old Homestead
Uncle Horace peeled the apples on
a pairing machine, and the old women
sliced them. Their tongues ran; they
were as clipper as crickets. They
had not had so good a time for years.
Catherine had to look to 1t that they
did not overwork. They produced
more sliced apple than the four eyap-
orators would dry. Uncle Horace had
to eontriye fifth drier over large
stove out In the woodhouse. Two
more forlorn old women from the
town farm came on foot, begging for
work They were taken In.
Apple drying went ON from the first
Of October till the middle Of January,
anu lll0 WuOlO CtOP was Q1lCQ. DSlOl
the first of March Catherine had sold
the entire output at eleven cents a
pound. The result was an object les
son to every apple farmer in that To-
cality. She received fifteen hundred
and sixty dollars; and owing to the
skill with which she had managed the
entire expenses of drying the apples
were less than hundred and seventy
dollars.
There was also this other curious
result: The old women did not want
to go home! In fact the two from
the town farm cried when the last of
the apples we're cut
Then Catherine determined to keep
them all over for the next season. She |
bought lot of yarn and set them tol
knitting socks and wooden gloves. In
fact. she had started a happy old WON |
ems home before she knew it! And
the number of applications which
came to her from homeless old WON
en- and from those who had aged rela-
tives on their hands whom they wish.
ed to be rid of would have been laugh
able, If it had not been pathetic. But
for the time being Catherine could
do no more than keep those whom she
had.
The year 1904 also proved to be
an apple year; and again the whole
crop was put into evaporated apple
two other old women having been ad
mitted to the "circle Of slicers"
BY this time, too, Catherine ha6
come to realize the possibilities o.
her new business. All the apple tree
were carefully looked after, and two
hundred young trees set out. ShC
planted, too, hundred and fifty plum
and pear trees, and an acre Of black
berry shrubs; for now her design
was to make a new venture, canning
pears, plums and berries in glass jars
In fact, 1t would not surprise me if a
few years hence this neglected OLD
homestead were producing five thou
sand dollars worth of fruit annually
Catherine appears to have solved
two important problems in social