UNIVERSITY PARK - Every
American knows something about
apples. Apples appear not only on
our shelves and in our
refrigerators, but also in songs,
poems, .legends, and everyday
speech. Who does not know the
tales of William Tell and Johnny
Appleseed? Who has not heard the
expressions “The apple of my eye”
and “An apple a day keeps the
doctor away”? America’s love for
apples goes back many decades.
But apples today are not at all like
those grown years ago.
One can only wonder what kinds
of apples the early American
settlers found along Johnny Ap
pleseed’s path. To be sure, they
must have witnessed some odd
looking harvests. More than likely,
much of the fruit was afflicted with
fungal growths and insect in
festations. Apples were probably
small, too, since fruit was not
thinned nor trees pruned as they
are now.
Today, apple growers do not
plant seeds, Instead, they grow
apples from transplanted trees,
which are produced by grafting a
small part of a branch or bud onto
a living root system. The new,
young tree has a bearing surface
genetically identical to that of its
“parent” and produces identical
fruit. Thus, grafting ensures that
the desirable characteristics of a
variety are transmitted from one
generation of trees to the next.
AOmMiTo
COMMMT NnA
Most changes in apple
production and marketing have
occurred in response to changes in
consumer demand for apples and
apple products. As a result, the
apple industry is better able to give
consumers the kind of fruit they
want, when and where they want
it.
Developments in storage, tam
sportation, and growing
techniques have enabled
producers and marketers to adjust
to changing consumer needs.
While the adjustment process is
slow overall, growers can change
minor characteristics of their
orchards relatively quickly. Major
step up
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Henry Forman J.L. "Ben” Herr (Salesman)
717-649-5579 717-649-5444
FORMAN'S GRAIN
& FERTILIZER
Beaver Run Road R.D. 1, Box 78
Turbotville. Pa. 17772
Apple industry adjusts to markets of future
changes, however, generally
require new plantings, which do
not bear fruit for four to six years.
Fortunately, consumption patterns
are also slow to change, so growers
usually have enough time to ad
just.
Per-capita consumption of fruit
has been slowly increasing for a
number of years. In the period,
1980-83, consumption was about 225
pounds, up 20 pounds (10 percent)
from 1970-74. Possible reasons for
the increase include the changing
lifestyles and age distribution of
our population, higher average
incomes, and greater awareness of
the importance of fruits and
vegetables to a well-balanced diet.
Nearly all of the increase in per
capita fruit usage since the mid
-1970s has been in fresh, noncitrus
fruits, especially apples. Apples
now comprise about 20 percent of
all fresh-fruit sales in the United
States. Much of the growth in
fresh-apple consumption is at
tributable to the wider use of
specialized con troll ed-atmosphere
storages. These storages maintain
fruit in a nearly fresh-picked
condition for several months,
offering consumers fairly large
volumes of high-quality fruit in the
late spring and summer.
Table 1 shows recent trends in
consumption of apples and apple
products. Since the mid-19705, the
popularity of apple juice has
skyrocketed. In contrast, per*
capita use of frozen slices has held
nearly constant, and consumption
of dried apples, canned slices, and
canned sauce has dropped. While
frozen apple slices and dried ap
ples offer comparatively few sales
opportunities for apple growers
nationally, canned apple slices and
apple sauce provide extremely
important markets. The drop in
consumption of canned slices and
sauce is particularly worrisome to
commercial growers in New York,
Michigan, and the Appalachian-
Region states of Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Delaware, West
Virginia, Virginia, and North
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Tnadt in
Fruit Consumption
Fresh
apples
16 4
176
18 1
Period
1970 74
1975 79
0 37
* Figures in this column are not directly comparable because sample sizes for the three periods differ
1980 83
Table 3 Apple production in selected states, the Appalachian region,
and the U.S. (millions of 42-lb. boxes)
Michigan New York Washington
15 7 21 1 36 4
Period
1970 74
1975 79
1980 84
16 0
19 5
Characteristic
Number of growers
Number of large growers
(at least 2,500 trees)
Percent of apples produced
by large growers
Number of acres in apples
Number of apple trees
Varieties (% of all apple trees)
Red Delicious
York
Golden Delicious
Stayman
Rome
Other
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Table 1 Annual per-capita consumption of
apples and apple products (in lbs)
Canned
apple
juice
2 73
3 81
6 74
Table 2, Fruit
produced annually
in the U.S.
(average of 1981-83)
Fruit
Oranges
Grapes
Apples
Grapefruit lemons
limes,
tangelos,
tangerines
Other noncitrus
23 1
24 7
Table 4 Selected characteristics of
the Pennsylvania apple industry
34 601 31 072
1 815 608 2 160,471
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CONCRETE WORK, INC.
Canned
slices and
sauce'*
3 5
26
2 2
Dried
apples
0 53
0 40
Tons
8,119
5,200
3 998
4 016
4 212
Appalachian
Region
35 0
35 6
38 2
54 1
67 9
Difference
31
1972 1982
715 684
170 176
3 529
l 344 863
It will last a lifetime
Frozen
slices
0 10
0 13
0 12
Total
23 26
24 54
27 53
United
States
150
173
197