PORTLAND OREGON 'SUNDAY MORNING. OCTOBER 13, 1907 W
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U.C appie, we are
told, was the
instrument b y
which the race
fell lost Para
dise. The apple,
it now appears,
has opened up to
this twentieth
century world a
new Paradise
one of wealth,
beauty, luscious
ness. Look at the
figures expert
'statisticians have, just given them out::::ind
see if you can grasp the tremendous mean
ing to the United States of the apple crop
this year. The estimate places it at 30,000,
000 barrels, at an average price to the
grower of $2 a barrel.
Sixty million dollars for a single 'year
from the apple crop.
And this is but a repetition of the song
the apple tree has been singing for several
years past a song that has told of one of
the pleasantest, surest means of profit open
to American money-makers.
The apple trees of the country will
alone during this single year, without work
ing overtime, yield profits amounting to
the total assessed valuation of Arizona;
would pay almost half the cost of con
structing the Panama canal such a tre
mendous . undertaking that a great nation
has for years hesitated to tackle it.
Cold storage has revolutionized the
apple business; exportation to Europe of
American apples on ice or in evaporated
form has tended to make the business still
more profitable.
So the expression "apples of gold1' is
not a mere figure of speech, but a literal
fact. .
Aren't our apologies due to Mother
Evef
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applo treed alone, and ITr. McCollum baa ala
thriviuff orchards of peara nnd plums.
In Colorado, however, had como to lijfht
the bifffrest profit from an applo orchard that
haa ever been reported in any part of America
or elaewhere.
For. this 'moat remarkable story, Paul Wil
son, president of the State Fair Association, of
Colorado, is authority, and ho declares that ho
secured his information while traveling through
the atate seeking exhibits for the tate Fair.
"I saw one orchard covering but a single
acre of ground," said Mr. Wilson, "which will
yield 4000 boxes of apples from its 100 tree
and a cash return of $12,000. Another orchard
will yield 15,000 boxes, which will sell for
tG5,000." '
In the first instance, Mr. Wilson evidently
figured on $3 a box, and in tbo latter case $4.33
a box. Of course, these were extremely fancy
apples very one a picture worthy being pre
served, to say nothing of its flavor.
Such instances are as yet rare. Yet th
fact that one is occasionally encountered is in
itself proof that the apple business can be made
one of the greatest in the country.
Science combined with farming, and a busi
ness system to wind up with in this it is that
such opportunities lie.
Indeed, a possible profit of $1000 an aer'
year after year is held forth as a safe promise
by authorities on scientific applo growing.
Farmers who have become rich out of th
apple business say that it requires far less ex
pense and actual work than almost any other
source of profit on the farm.
JUST RAKES IN THE CASH '
Some years nature actually takes care of
the entire business, so that all tlie farmer has
to do is to rake in the cash.
Nature's lavishnefls was shown especially in
1896, the biggest apple year in the memory of
American farmers, when, in addition to about
3,000,000 barrels shipped to Europe, there wero
left to rot on the ground millions of barrels, and
many were shipped which never paid the freight,
for the reason that no one would buy them.
That was the year when the very best ap
ples were permitted to rot on the ground, when
the crop became entirely unmanageable. And
it was all because the apple business up to that
time had not been systematized. The financial
giant had lain sleeping in the presence of shrewd
people who wotted not of his presence, and when
he awakenod he startled them.
Mark the change 1 Immediately after the
great fortune had been permitted to rot, there
was a general demand for cheap methods of
preserving and utilizing the apple crop. And
in answer to the demand these things have
come.
So now nature may become as profligate as
she pleases. She will never again find the
American farmer unprepared. Let her try it.
Cold storage, one might at first suppose,
would reduce the price of apples. This it has
not done. It has done something better, has
made it possible to have a good, fresh apple
late in the season.
A few years ago you could not enjoy an
apple after the snow had left the ground, for
by that time the apples would have rotted. Now
you may as late as the June following the har
vest eat an apple and find its lus
ter and lusciousnes3 unimpaired.
Hasn't this been something to
accomplish?
In the matter of evaporated
apples, there is a never-endingf
source of wealth. Europe is every
year demanding more. Germany,
this year is willing to take all the
(CONTINUED ON INSIDB ' .
PAGE)
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Then the apples all Is gathered, an' the ones a
feller keeps
Is plied up on the cellar floor. In red an' yeller
heaps. James Whltcomb Riley.
ALMOST any American who has passed
maturity can recall a time when apples
were hardly considered as a means of
revenue to the farmer.
Apple trees were permitted to bloom, bear
and' be shaken in season; those apples which
were required for cidemaking, mince and applo
pies and winter eating were gathered into the
cellar; neighbors were permitted to coma and
take what.was left, if they cared to. ...
Earely were those apples that fell on the
ground considered worth picking up, although
they might have been among the . best of the
yield. If a farmer happened to do "peddling,"
he took a few bushels to town on each trip. This
was about all.
In time apple buyers began to send their
agents into the country along in the summer
and make offers to the farmers for their apples,
delivered in barrels at the nearest freight sta
tion. Then it dawned upon the farmers that they
might figure on a regular annual income from
their apple trees, just as from their wheatfields
and potato rows. -
And so the business has gone on evoluting,
until it has reached the present stage of indus
trial importance.
In the story of its transformation there
looms up bright and strong the influence of sci
entific methods, of systematizing one of na-t
ture's treasure mines to the point where its best
possibilities could be realized.
In Eve's day a forbidden fruit, if tradition
Is right, and in the day of modern Eves not yet
bi.-
in their dotage something of comparatively lit
tle importance, the apple has now become a fruit
of rare financial promise. ,-
Just to show by cold, hard figures the profit
that actually lies in an apple orchard, look at
what Fred Zimmerman, residing west of the
town of Lockport, N. Y., has done without re
source to the necromancer's art or the crucible
of the chemist..
The Zimmerman farm sold, recently, for
. $3000. The buyer figures that he will get 1400
barrels of apples from the tract this year. For
these he expects a price ranging between $3
and $4 a barrel.
Now, deduct a, fair price to cover the cost
of picking, packing and delivering at the freight
station, and there is still a clear profit for the
owner so he has calculated of $2.80 a barrel,
or $3920.
What does this mean f Don't you see I
It means a total profit in a single year of
$3920 on a farm that cost recently only $3000.
A farm more than paid for in a single year
by its apple trees 1
And to think of the years when the gold
lay all unrecognized . in those apples, like the
diamond that sparkles beneath the black cov
ering of the rough stone.
From another New York state orchard
that of S. W. McCollum, near Lockport, con
taining 1100 apple trees indications are that
2500. barrels of apples will be secured this year
against 500 last year.
This will mean a profit of $7000 from the
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