h, sweet juice as cider, this "King of Fruits" can be
cooked, baked, dried, canned, and made into jellies and other
appetizing dishes, to enumerate all of which would be to prepare a
list pages long. Few who have tasted once want to be without their
apple sauce and apple pies in season, not to mention the crisp, juicy
specimens to eat out of hand by the open fireplace in the long winter
evenings. Apples thus served call up pleasant memories to most of us,
but only recently have the culinary possibilities of the apple,
especially as a dessert fruit, been fully realized.

It is doubtless this realization of its great adaptability, together
with its long season, which have brought the apple into so great
demand of late. It is possible to have apples on the table in some
form the year round. The first summer apples are almost always with us
before the bottom of the Russet barrel is reached. Or, should the
fresh fruit be too expensive or for some reason fail altogether, the
housewife can fall back on the canned and dried fruit which are almost
as good.

The tendency in the price of this staple fruit has been constantly
upward during the last decade. Many people are greatly surprised when
the fact that apples cost more than oranges is called to their
attention. The increase in consumption, due to the greater variety of
ways of preparing the apple for use, has undoubtedly been an important
factor in this higher price. But at least an equally important factor
is the marked decrease in the supply of this fruit. To those who are
not familiar with the facts, the great falling off in production which
the figures show will be no less than startling.

PRODUCTION OF APPLES IN BARRELS IN THE UNITED STATES FROM 1896 TO 1910

1896 69,070,000
1897 41,530,000
1898 28,570,000
1899 37,460,000
1900 56,820,000
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Total crop for five years 233,450,000
Average crop for five years 46,690,000
1901 26,970,000
1902 46,625,000
1903 42,626,000
1904 45,360,000
1905 24,310,000
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