Mr. Robertson to Mr.
Uhl.
Consulate of the United States,
Hamburg, October 30,
1894.
Sir: At the request of that gentleman, I have
the honor to herewith transmit a report, containing one inclosure, from
the United States consular agent at Flensburg, on the subject of
“American apple rings.”
[Page 309]
It
will be noticed that in my report of the 29th instant I had already
called the attention of the Government to the dangers besetting our
export trade in dried and evaporated apples in Germany, and to the
necessity on the part of our exporters of observing every caution in the
curing of fruit and other food products for this market to prevent their
adulteration.
I am not at all convinced that the fault lies entirely with our people,
but believe that for various reasons any possible unhealthiness in the
fruit arriving has been misrepresented and exaggerated.
I am, etc.,
W. Henry Robertson, Consul.
[Inclosure.]
In my reports of last year to the Department of Agriculture I had
occasion to bring to notice the attacks made in German papers
against American products, and how necessary it is to prevent this
for the benefit of the American trade.
I mentioned then only American seeds—clover, timothy, etc.—which are
supposed to have been adulterated and worthless, but now I name an
American export article—apple rings. Warnings, as the inclosed show,
can be read from time to time in German papers, and, in consequence,
these goods are purchased here very little.
I do not really know if the adulteration with salt of tin is made in
America, or if these warnings only come from German manufacturers.
Should the first be the case, it is high time to prevent such
manipulation; otherwise, the trade with Germany will be spoiled
entirely.
The market for dried fruits, especially apples and peaches, in
Germany, is, very important. Should the statement in the articles be
untrue, the American manufacturers should contradict them.
A retail merchant here told me that he sold, in the year 1889, 27
hundredweight of American apple rings, and last year only 2
hundredweight, and these he bought with a German certificate stating
that the fruit was free of salt of tin. The same man told me that
lately the German Government had actually examined the common
American (yellow) sun-dried apples, and found them adulterated.
A friend of mine wrote to the German Reichs-Gesundheits Amt Berlin,
and received the inclosed answer.
Hnr. Beneke, Consular Agent.
Flensburg, October 30,
1894.
[Subinclosure.—Translation.]
In answer to your inquiry regarding apple rings (dried pippins), I
may say the prime minister sent a circular, dated April 16, 1894, to
the allied states, and it is printed by the board of health in their
annual for 1894, which is to be had of Mr. Julius Springer, Berlin,
N. Menbijon Platz 3.
warning against the consumption of american
sliced apples (apple
rings).
[Translation from the publications of
the Imperial Sanitary Department for 1894.]
Frequent analyses which have been recently made show that American
apple rings contain a considerable quantity of zinc, which has been
pronounced by medical experts as injurious to health. It is,
perhaps, intentional on the part of Americans to add zinc to them in
order to give them a finer white color by drying them on tin plates,
or by saturating them with a diluted solution of hydrochlorate of
tin. As announced by the public chemical laboratory of Dr. B.
Alexander-Katz, the legal chemist, the examinations have not been
completed which were authorized by the Imperial Government to be
held at different places during the summer of 1894. Should it be
proved sufficiently by these that the greater part of American apple
rings contain demonstrable and often considerable quantities of
zinc, the German manufacturers will at least be relieved of their
dangerous American competition. The German wholesale merchants who
deal chiefly in American apples seek to protect themselves by
certificates of American chemists. It is to be hoped that in the
future they will be required not to sell American apple rings which
have not received a certificate of the absence of zinc from a German
chemist.
