Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1919 — Big Increase in Year’s Apple Crop [ARTICLE]

Big Increase in Year’s Apple Crop

CjfMWßimi 24,385,000 Barrels Compared with 22319,000 Barrels Last Year

There is good news from Washington concerning the apple crop. The official forecaster gives out the figures for the strictly commercial apple crop of this year as 24,385,000 barrels, as compared with 22,519,000 barrels for the United States last year. Surely with a commercial crop of apples averaging a goodly portion of a barrel for every man, woman and child, to which portion may safely be added a few quarts of windfalls for each, Americans ought not to go appleless, observes a writer in the Newark (N. J.) News. And yet, from past experience, we may suffer for apples unless we are willing to have the pocketbook considerably flattened. Apples are no longer the'inexpensive fruit that obtained In the good old times. There Are various reasons assigned for the increase In the price the ultimate consumer must pay for his winter supply of apples. Indeed, sometimes this increase amounts to such sums that he finds it cheaper to pay for a visit from the doctor occasionally than to live up to the well-known adage about “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” - - Some there are who assign the reason for apples increasing in cost to the fact that only the best are marketed; the others are allowed to rot on the ground—this to keep the price up, some practically minded individuals maintain. Today the crop in many & private orchard is bought on the trees before it is ready to harvest; the owner is not troubled with how many barrels there are or are not; the crop as it grows is taken and it is for the buyer to do what he wishes with it Judging from the thousands of bushels that a certain automobiiist was obliged to drive over In making a detour along the Hudson to Albany last fall, a good proportion Of the apple crop was allowed to go to waste. Any repetition of this waste surely would be a sad commentary on leakages in our food conservation. Why cannot apples be utilized even though they may not be sufficiently perfect to cartel or box, put Into storage and sold at a fancy figure. Dried or made into apple jelly, apple sauce and apple butter, they would go a long way in helping out the table during the winter months. The apple wastage will be tremendous if It is in relative proportion to what went to waste last year. The government estimates the apple output this fall in New York state alone as 39,400 carloads of 160 barrels to a car, while last year the crop was only 14,900 cars. / -