Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 195, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1911 — The UNITED STATES APPLE GROWER to the WORLD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The UNITED STATES APPLE GROWER to the WORLD

. l •. *■*■■■■■% it is not too much to Isay that the American apple,—yellow or green or tz, rosy, but rich and mel- i mmmmm low, .always,—is the most SfcdfiMt widely known and most ffggWs highly esteemed product ll 11 ot Uncle Sam’s domain in yjjjgjCJ the estimation of the great majority of the people - w over seas. We hear much talk of the extent to which American Inventions and utilities hare won their way around the world, and it is literally trie. All up and down the highways of the earth we find strange people using Yankee safety rasors and kodaks and enjoying the music as American-made phonographs. But after all tt is the American apple which has done more than anything rise to carry conviction as to what a bounteous realm Is this pre mier republic of the new world. And, speaking of the apple, it must not be supposed that any messurs of Its prestige is due to the (here fact that It is a food, wbsreas some of the ather things which we expert to the tune of millions of dollars a year are luxuries, pure amL simple. The United States Is food purveyor to the world with other eatables than the luscious products of our orchards. Why if It wore not for our wheat and oorn, for instance, half of Europe would go hungry just as were it not for our cotton, thousands of employes of foreign cotton mills would go idle. But with all due respect to these tacts it may yet be declared that the American apple is in a class by itself. The old world owes her tobacco and

her potatoes to the new world, likewise, but these she has succeeded in transplanting to her own soil. For the appetizing apple at its beat, however, she must still come to the land of the Stars and Stripes. There does not seem to be a very clear record of just when the American export trade in apples had its beginnings, but probably It began on a small scale almost ap soon as the lovers of the good things of earth discovered what a precious boon Is the mealy sphere with Its refreshing, thirst-quenching propensities. The lands over seas have acquired their enthusiasm for American apples partly because they have already had the best grade of the fruit served to them. There are two explanations of this. On the one hand there is the consideration that only a good grade of apple of certain varieties has the keeping quality to permit of its exportation,—a transfer that means that weeks and more likely months must Intervene between the time the apples are picked In Amer-

lea and the time they are eaten under foreign skies. - The second conslderatl o n, and It is equally important, In its influence, is that the sale of American apples abroad, extensive as it is,

is for the most part to people who can afford to pay for such delicacies. The poorest classes in Europe eat the yields of our wheat and corn fields and if we could not sell our wheat and corn at reasonable prices, they would be obliged to pass them by and eat rice or some other food staple that could be obtained at prices within their means. With apples, however, the situation is very different. The fancy varieties that find way to alien shores, each apple neatly wrapped in its individual piece of paper, must perforce demand good prices and consequently thus far the only Bale is among the wealthy or well-to-do. Perhaps, some day, if the craze for apple growing continues, we shall be producing so many apples of the poorer grades that our orchardists will in self-defense have to seek a market abroad for the poorer or at least the cheaper grades of apples. When one is told that you are required to pay as high as twenty or twenty-five cents

apiece in London and on the Continent for those huge red apples that have brought fame to the Pacific Northwest, you have a nea? explanation of the prices ranging from $2,500 ~to SIO,OOO per acre which are demanded for bearing orchards in this favored fruit laud. The chances are that in the eyes of the average foreign apple-eater, Niagara Falls doeß not rank higher as an American wonder than the Hood River Valley in Oregon, the Wenatohee, the Yakima and other districts from the five acre and ten acre fruit farms of which come the winesaps and other varieties of apples that compel the most conservative European epicure to, concede that America must be a wonderful place after all. But it would be a great mistake to convey the impression that it is only the apples from Oregon and Washington which are freighted over land and sea to win praises in foreign tongues. The greatest apple shipping port in the world is Watsonville, California, and countless apples have gone forth as silent missionaries from the great orchards of the middle west and particularly from the Ozarks which long ago attained a proud position as a fountain head of the stream of apples that annually overspreads the world. The most famous apple growing region In the east, —the picturesque Albemarle highlands of old Virginia—is likewise a heavy contributor to the larders of moneyed foreigners. From this historic section of the Old Dominion come tho famous Albemarle pippins which bring prices ranging up to $lO a barrel and which are such favorites

In England that the tight little Isle takes the lion’s share of the crop. This Is the apple which was so favored by the late Queen Victoria and which is likewise the especial favorite of Britain’s new king. Since this country has assumed the role of purveyor of apples to the cifilized world, a great change has taken place in the methods of harvesting the choicer grades of apples. No more is there resort to

the old hap-hazard method of detailing one boy to climb the tree and shake the limbs while other lads gathered from the ground the fruit which, in all too many casds, was more or less damaged by the fall. Nowadays when keeping qualities are as desirable as flavor in an apple, each apple is picked at its prime,—that is when It has attained perfection of color, but before it has commenced to grow mellow, —and is carefully packed In box or barrel from which it will emerge in perfect condition after months of cold storage.

It was because of the difficulty of obtaining apples that had been packed with extreme care that many large buyers,—particularly those buying for foreign markets, —some years ago inaugurated the practice of busing the apples on the trees and themselves attending to the picking and shipment. The plan has proven so satisfactory to both growers and buyers that it has been paid for the fruit “on the trees” in a single orchard. Of course, the grower does not get as large a lump sum as he would for the packed apples, but his net return is as great or greater and he saves himself no end of trouble and worry and controversy. The apple buyer who purchases an apple crop on the trees in this fashion may bring in his own expert pickers to harvest the fruit or he may merely employ the labor In the neighborhood. It is sometimes declared that a considerable portion of the American people has to put up with what are, in effect, second-grade while the proudest products of our orchards go Bcooting past our doors enroute to castles and hotels and mansions beyond the Atlantic. Of course, this is true, only in a measure. Immense quantities of all the high-priced varieties of American apples are consumed: right here at home, although it may be admitted that the bulk of the supply for the populous eastern -citieß comes from the orchards of New York, New England and other districts that are close at hand. But, by the way, it may be added that the apple-growing industry in New England iB taking a great “brace” as regards the quality of the fruit produced. Stony hillsides, particularly in Connecticut, are, under the advanced methods of cultivation, being made to yield heavy crops of huge delicious apples and if this sort of thing keeps on the time Is coming when New England apples will vie in the markets of the world with the prize specimens from the west coast.

A noticeable characteristic of the American apple growing Industry In all sections of the country Is found in the Immense numbers of people who are entering the field. There seems to be something of a general mania to take up fruit raising which exceeds in extent the stampede of a few years ago to get intb the poultryraising business. A good many of the newcomers have had little experience in fruit raising, or Indeed in farming of any sort and those who are laboring, as many of them are, under the delusion that fruit-raising is an “easy money” proposition requiring nelthar experience nor hard work, would seem doomed to a rude awakening. On the other hand many of the men who hare lately taken up apple raising as a serious business are shrewd business men of energy and determination who will win out in the end, even if they do stumble a few times at first. What is more, a number of them have the capital back of them to stick at the game and thlg is important inasmuch as the apple industry is liable to prove a waiting game,—not only with young trees which have not reached the bearing stage but also to some extent with mature orchards when a late frost or other 'inauspicious conditions may ruin a crop and allow the grower no chance for a profit until a full year hence. , - ♦ Some of the apple growers have expressed fear within the past year or two that this immense influx of apple producers will serve to in time glut the mafket and force down prices. The best-posted authorities, however, take little stock in any dire predictions in this direction. They point out that not only is apple consumption bound to have a natural increase'pro portionate to the growth in the population of the country, but, more significant still is the circumstance that the American people are learning to make more extensive use of this supremely healthful fruit, serving it in a variety of new forms which will make the fruit what is ought to be. —a staple on every American table.