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Show I Moving Big Apple Crop From County Without Railroads I I I ALHCUX COUNTY, the queer- H est county in Illinois because b of its virtuai isolation from the mainland, and famous for its ap- ' pies, is now in the thick of its annual f apple harvest. This year the crop, a !t comparatively short one, will run i above 500,000 barrels, of which SL Louis will get half. ; The little river-bound county, pc- ; culiarly adapted to apple culture, con- J tains only 258 square miles. Its pop- illation of 10,000 persons is engaged for the most part in some branch of the apple growing Industry, and the county has the distinction of producing II itl'li morc aPPcs an any county in the " Widdlc West M l' i Speaking in millions, Calhoun this (J; '. j year is harvesting 250,000,000 apples W '- j!. and if St Louis were to got all of th'cm i ;; there would ,be an "apple a day to A keep the doctor away" from every one i 01 the 900,000 for 238 days- R l I Calhoun county, strangely as it 4 k seems, to those who believe the Mis-i Mis-i 1 ;i sissippl runs north and south is north-jp north-jp . ? west of St. Louis. It Is bounded on I; i I the east, south and west by rivers. It j touches the Mississippi River on tno k west and the Illinois on the cast, the .i two streams converging at the south i point of the county. t t Excuse for Iiivcr Traffic It is attached to Illinois at the north, but the denizens of the southern end 1 :; of the county virtually live in isolation. i The peculiar situation of the hermit j" county has deprived it of a railroad, but the rivers have afforded it a means . , of getting rid of its annual output of f ) P'PPins. m' ,j rj- This year there are seven "steam- f:"' 0ata engaged in the apple trade be- f j; ; tween St. Louis and Calhoun. It -will 'i them nearly tv,o months to move 5 C' 1 LoulB' share of the crop. The re-5 re-5 Mv- ft mainder of the fruit Is shipped to Chi- .'! cag0 and other markets hy rail. g jfef Every year the apple harvest causes -fv;' a rcvyal of river traiflc that makes I U 'I one recall tho days of Mark Twain. 8 a Tho St Louis levee Ith lts endless , P 1 stacks of apple barrels and boats dis- 'V cbarging cargo presents a series of Wl bustling scenes. The movement of tho 4 W if crop UBUally begins In August, but the iiiP zeQlth of the harvest Is never reached mot ; until October. The movement of late T $ Tarleties some times runs through No- f T'i : vcmber and into December. y lr-ji The'apples aro loaded on the boats (sfcffiEw, at both Mississippi river and Illinois 1- iBtEc rIver Points. Hardin, the county seat ' $1hbF 0t Calll0Uri Is ono o the big shipping polnts. There are many loading places "penny rollers" lord tXo lieals.- Usu'-. ally all decks of the boats are filled by the time they are ready to start for St. Louis. Time Between Jabs. The "penny rollers," so called because be-cause the men are paid a. penny for each barrel they roll, in addition to their board, some times become so adept at handling barrels that they can roll as many as 400 barrels a day. The average weight of each barrel is 150 pounds, and rolling a barrel up a cobblestone levee Is not much amusement amuse-ment for the roller. Some of tho rollers remain at the docks and pass the time between boats throwing dice for apples or for the pennies they have earned. The craps games, largely a Mississippi river institution, in-stitution, usually are conducted behind screens of apple barrels. En route the rollers sleep on the deck, sometimes without blankets. It requires a day and a night for a boat to make a trip to Calhoun and return, stopping at way places for its loadings. By reason of its topography. Calhoun Cal-houn county went into the business of growing apples, and now. when Its crop is normal it has enough to supply , a large part of the Mississippi Valley trade. Through years of experience in apple growing, the orchardists of Calhoun Cal-houn havo found that the varieties which thrive best in the county are: Jonathan, Ben Davis, Huntsman, York Imperial, Stayman Winesap, Wincsap, Roman Beauty, Willow Twig, Minkler and Gano. It is interesting to know that there arc several hundred varieties varie-ties of apples. The grower often sells his crop on the tree, thus escaping the trials of picking and shipping, but mostof thenj do their own picking and packing pack-ing and deliver the apples at tho loading load-ing stations. The buyer who contracts for the apples on the tree is gambling, and often sustains a great loss through frost One flourishing Industry in Calhoun which has to thank the apple for its existence is that of barrel making. Tho slaves, hoops and tops for the barrels are shipped to the orchards "flat" or knocked down, and the cooper is kept busy in early summer assembling the barrels. The barrels are seldom used twice. Handling tho Pruit. Picking and packing apples has come to be a. science in these days of efficiency and wasta elimination. The growers say that the most economical way of packing apples Is the one that wiU keep tho Xruit .the Jongefit with. ;-;r;s; less depreciation. The physical handling han-dling of the fruit crop is one of the most Important operation as well as ono of the most expensive, and the growers have found that they could not afford to struggle along using antiquated an-tiquated methods. Though boxes are used extensively for packing apples in the Pacific West, the barrel will always be the most important im-portant package for Eastern and Middle Mid-dle West fruit! The growers find that tho fruit must be uniform iu ripeness and they insure this by making several pickings and making the time between picking and packing very short. The war has affected the apple, grower in many ways. The one big good the grower got out of the conflict con-flict was the campaign. for the elimination elimina-tion of waste. Despite the fact that no apples arc being shipped abroad and that the -whole crop of about 80,000,000 barrels is for home consumption, there is less apple wasiage today than ever. Harry Hartman, vice president of the William Hartman Fruit and Pro-duco Pro-duco Company, one of th6 large St. Louis apple trading concerns, says that the price of apples this year will be about 35 per cent higher than last year. This, ho says, is due to the shortage of tho crop, tho increased cost of production and the shortage of labor. la-bor. More women are engaged In the apple ap-ple harvest this year than ever berorc In the history of Calhoun county. This condition is caused by the shortage of male labor, so many men having gone to war or engaged in war industries. Tho women become proficient In the art of picking and packing because of their instinctive tendencies in handling the fruit. Growers say that apples packed for storing should bo "handled like eggs." Methods of storing apples for home use havo a morc scientific basis now, the grower says. One will snj: "Back on ,tho farm, whea I was a boy, ; - - 1 grandfather used -to put forty bushels of apples away in the cellar bin every fall. That was a winter's supply for family use, and. the old gentleman never nev-er fussed with thermometers and ven--tilafors in those days. It was no problem prob-lem at all." ' To this argument the modern apple man will say: "And do you- remember remem-ber how often you boys bad to sort out the forty bushels and eliminate the bad ones?". . ; . Apples for Storage. There Is no trick at all about the storing of apples for commercial use, but thcro are new tricks in the storing of apples for later consumption. The large fruit grower or storage man finds out exactly what is necessary to keep his product to the best advantage and he builds a structure suitable for the purpose. The householder must orteu get along with makeshifts. Some varieties of fruit ripen faster than others and do not keep as long. The apple men have prepared a tablo showing tho limits of keeping time of winter apples. Tho table shows that the Jonathan will keep from November until April, the Ben Davis from November No-vember until February and tho Wine-sap Wine-sap from January until June. Tho growers warn housewives that it is bad to buy loose lots of apples for storing or apples without reliable pedigree. Their advice is to select a good winter keeper. Apples for stqring should be solid fruit. A little break in the skin will start the ruin of thc .wholo apple. Thoro is a difference of opinion as to the value of wrapping apples in paper. If the air is moist, wrapping is unnecessary, un-necessary, but if tho air is dry, wrapping wrap-ping will conserve tho moisture. Wrapping- also tends to prevent the communication com-munication of decay! In cellars where the air is dry, a sprinkling pot may be used to supply moisture. An old-fashioned method of keeping apples during the winter was burying them iu the ground. This was remarkably re-markably successful, but often the fruit emerged from the ground with an earthy flavor. A good way to store apples in the ground Is to lay them in n straw-lined trench, cover the fruit with litter and then with earth. Much has been said about tho waste in connection with the apple harvest A city man will drive through the country and will note many apples ap-ples on the ground under the trees. When he returns to the city he will talk about the lamentable waste of the orchardists. He is wrong. The present pres-ent apple waste is virtually nil. The apples the city man socs on the ground are wormy or thoso which have ripened prematurely and dropped. The apple that matures rapidly also ros quickly. In this respect the author of the Autocrat at the Breakast Table compares men to apples. He said that men who matured early in life decayed de-cayed rapidly, and men who reached maturity later, were of a hardier nature. na-ture. So it Is with apples. . Disposing of Windfalls. Calhoun county puts all of her apples ap-ples to one use or another. The windfalls wind-falls and culls are scooped up from the ground under the trees. They arc used in the making of cider, apple butter, but-ter, vinegar, and the better grade culls arc sent to the driers. v There were times when, in full crop years, many apples were wasted. That was when apples were bringing prices below tho cost of production and tho orchardists decided it would bo a waste of labor to put them on the markot If apples are wasted, said tho grower, it proves that there is something some-thing wrong with the method of distribution. dis-tribution. But that problem has been overcome. The nearest competitor in the apple trade to Calhoun county in tho Middlo West is tho Ozark country. Few apples ap-ples aro grown south of tho Ozarks ; and the southern states import many apples from Illinois and Missouri. St Louis is the apple center of tho Middle West Several million barrels qL .the, fruit are handled, through St, j Louis markets every year. Many of the fancy apples are shipped to New York and other Eastern points. Tho apple grower has adopted as a slogan "Let Us Spray," and It is believed be-lieved that through intensive orcharding, orchard-ing, such as is coming into practice,, the tide of production Is soon to change from an insufficient production produc-tion to an overproduction. n |