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TO MAKE CONCENTRATED APPLE CIDER ON A COMMERCIAL SCALE.—­The specialists of the fruit and vegetable utilization laboratory of the department have completed arrangements for a commercial test of the recently discovered method of concentrating apple cider by freezing and centrifugal methods.  As a result, a cider mill in the Hood River Valley, Ore., will this fall undertake to manufacture and put on the retail market 1,000 gallons of concentrated cider, which will represent 5,000 gallons of ordinary apple cider with only the water removed.

The new method, it is believed, makes possible the concentrating of cider in such a way that it will keep better than raw cider, and also be so reduced in bulk that it can be shipped profitably long distances from the apple growing regions.  The old attempts to concentrate cider by boiling have been failures because heat destroys the delicate flavor of cider.  Under the new method nothing is taken from the cider but the water, and the resultant product is a thick liquid which contains all the apple-juice products and which can be restored to excellent sweet cider by the simple addition of four parts of water.  The shippers and consumers, therefore, avoid paying freight on the water in ordinary cider.  In addition, the product, when properly barreled, because of its higher amount of sugar, keeps better than raw cider, which quickly turns to vinegar.

The process, as described by the department’s specialists, consists of freezing ordinary cider solid.  The cider ice is then crushed and put into centrifugal machines such as are used in making cane sugar.  When the cider ice is whirled rapidly the concentrated juice is thrown off and collected.  The water remains in the machine as ice.

At ordinary household refrigerator temperatures this syrup-like cider will keep perfectly for a month or six weeks, and if kept at low temperatures in cold storage will keep for prolonged periods.  At ordinary house temperatures it, of course, will keep a shorter time.

To make the concentrated syrup, the cider mill must add to its equipment an ice-making machine and centrifugal machinery, so that the process is not practicable on a small scale.  The specialists are hopeful, however, that the commercial test soon to be inaugurated in Oregon will show that it will be possible for apple growers to concentrate their excess cider and ship it profitably to the far South or to other non-producing regions.  The specialists also believe that it will enable apple producers to prolong the market for cider.—­U.S.  Dept. of Agri., Oct., 1914.

How Mr. Mansfield Grows Tomatoes.

MRS. JENNIE STAGER, SAUK RAPIDS.