George Washington Carver: A National Agricultural Library Digital Exhibit

1923

National Agricultural LIbrary

Shortly after the close of the World War American manufacturers became greatly interested in the possibilities of utilizing dried apple pomace and similar dried residues as stock foods. Information, founded on scientific research, concerning the feeding value of dried apple by-products and their effect on the production of milk when fed to cows was limited. Accordingly, the Bureau of Chemistry of the United States Department of Agriculture undertook an investigation of the utilization as stock food of dried apple pomace and dried apple-pectin pulp. Special attention was given to the value of the dried pomace and pectin pulp as sources of succulence for cows during the winter.

The first industrial problem in connection with the by-products of the apple probably arose with the first crude attempts to prepare a drink from its juice. Evidently the early cider makers were not greatly impressed with the value of cider press cake, or apple pomace, as food for stock, in spite of the fact that Cato and Varro and other Roman writers on agricultural subjects had advocated the feeding of grape marc, the refuse from wine making. The use of apple pomace as a food for stock may have been ignored for the reason that, according to Evelyn and Mortimer the fruit employed for making cider at that time was so harsh that swine refused to eat it even before the juice had been extracted.

Apple By-Products as Stock Foods