THE BEST USES FOR SURPLUS FRUITS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9219, 23 November 1888, Page 6

THE BEST USES FOR SURPLUS FRUITS.

Fruit-growing has already become (says the American Agriculturist) one of the largest, most productive, reasonably profitable, and most abused of our agricultural industries. How best to dispose of the surplus, so as to prevent the losses and abuses that now exist, is a question that is agitating the minds of some of the best thinkers of the day. As yet, no really satisfactory solution has been worked out, but much information has been secured which, properly applied, may be of great financial profit to our readers. In the first place, the " surplus" of fruits is very often far larger than it need be, the amount depending upon the simplest principles. The better the varieties, the care and culture, the gathering, packing, transportation, handling, and general appearance of the fruit, the greater the demand and the less the surplus. Rarely is a strictly firstclass package of fruit found in the surplus ; while some shiftless, foolish growers are always raising and selling " surplus." The first step should be to reduce the quantity —not of fruit, but of poor fruit thrown upon the market. Endeavour by combination through a fruit exchange, as is done in Michigan and New Jersey, to look up the best markets in our own country, and to devise the better means of reaching the distant consumer.

The testimony in this inquiry of many of the most successful horticulturists also agrees with remarkable unanimity that the local market is often but partially developed. Heavy shipments are rushed off to glut the large centres, while many smaller towns are eager to pay a somewhat better price for what they need, if it is presented in attractive shape. Seeking new markets in cities and mining towns more distant is the refuge of many in the middle states and west of the Missouri River; these places, about which comparatively little fruit is as yet grown, are one of the best outlets for surplus stock, both of nice fruit, cider, vinegar, evaporated fruit, etc. The men who niarkete data loss in Chicago may now be making a profit by shipping to frontier markets, but they naturally keep quiet about it. Others, like the Californians, have aimed to produce varieties for certain purposes—local markets, commercial canning, Eastern shipment, and drying— and so have proportionately less of a real surplus than is common in the older states. Making jellies, apple butter, jams, etc., by tho growers of the fresh fruit has brought them in competition with city compounders, whose raw material consists of glucose, cheap sugars, alum, aniline dyes, and chemical flavouring extracts. In appearance, any advantage is in favour of this compound. The difference in the cost of this product and straight goods enriches the one and impoverishes the manufacturer of the other. The jelly makers of Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York have found their business ruined and unprofitable plants on their hands. A few still make standard goods and others operate evaporators and run the skins and cores into "jam." Canning is still more or less satisfactory, and canneries are constantly multiplying. Pure apple butter " without worms or finger nails," in other words, made from nice fruit in an absolutely neat manner, is a profitable specialty with some. These products may be easily and cheaply kept, and disposed of when the market is favourable. Artificial or adulterated cider, vinegar, and wine have also robbed the production of these articles of mucn of their former profitable return. But the best grades of honestly-made goods still pay, especially w hen the reputation of one's brand is established.

A. R. Whitney, one of the most extensive orchardists in Illinois, uses ninety-eight per cent, of his great apple crop for cider and vinegar. Much poor fruit forced upon the market to depress prices could be better fed out to stock where grown. Hogs do well on fruit of all kinds, and cows will thrive on apples if fed carefully ; cows vary in their ability to eat apples without injury, and should be given only a quart or two at first, gradually increasing the amount as experi once shows they can stand it. This is, indeed, about the only way to use the early surplus of fall fruit, and the windfalls, wormy apples, knurly fruit.

On this point A. W. Sias, of Minnesota, Writes:—"My advice is to convert your orchard into a hog pasture as soon the trees come fairly into bearing. I have in mind an orchard near Rochester, N.Y., that has been pastured with hogs for thirty years, and I know of no orchard of its size in the whole country that has produced more fine fruit. Orchards treated in like manner in Minnesota produce similar results. There is a Northern Spv tree in the old orchard mentioned that measures twelve feet in circumference."

The final resort with the surplus is to dry it by the many evaporating devices now in use. The general testimony agrees in the profitable character of this system. Comparatively few failures with approved evaporators are reported, but low prices for the product make large returns impossible for surplus thus used. The most money in evaporating is made by the large concerns who buy in large quantities at very low rates and make a specialty of the business. Evaporating has wonderfully developed all over the world since the American Agriculturist, many years ago, described one of the first machines for the purpose—the still popular American evaporator. For the ordinary farmer or family nothing serves better than the family evaporator, of which there are several good kinds in the market. Evaporating must be conducted economically ; the opportunities for waste and expense are very numerous. Machinery must be employed, and the charges for labour reduced to the minimum. Cleanliness and great care to market a good article in a neat and attractive style are also essential. The most successful evaporators use only the best fruit, not culls or seconds, as only the best produces goods that maintain their superiority and market.

To make commercial canned and evaporated goods profitable, they must be planted and grown especially for this purpose , no orchard,. as usually planted for shipping green fruit, is so well arranged for canning and evaporating as to be very profitable. Neither can a cannery or evaporator depend upon the irregularsupplies of any neighbourhood which has planted mainly for shipping fresh. This fact is illustrated on a grand scale in many parts of California. Take as an example a twelve hundred acre orchard of apricots near Tulare, with a large evaporating house near the centre. Such an orchard can establish and maintain a uniform brand, and thus secure a great trade, it' the goods are kept to a uniform standard, which they would DO to a far greater degree than if supplied by a neighbourhood of growers.