ALMOND CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 335 



bleached peaches, taken at meal-time, contain a poisonous or a 

 medicinal dose of the acid ? Remember, they are "not sulphured 

 ad lib. The consumer and the middle-man set the bounds. A 

 distinctly susceptible sulphur taste hurts the peach in the mar- 

 ket, and reacts on the grower. He is obliged to learn the art of 

 securing a thorough bleach without the sulphur taste. To do 

 this he must have the right kind of sulphur, and a very tight 

 bleaching-box properly arranged inside ; and he must know how 

 much sulphur to put in, and how long to leave his fruit exposed 

 to its fumes. The most experienced of my neighbors still differ 

 widely on all these details. But I am convinced that, with 

 proper facilities and proper skill and care, the bleaching may be 

 made to entirely satisfy the eye of the consumer without injuring 

 the rest of his body. I confess I should like to be still better satis- 

 fied on the point. But I console myself with the reflection that 

 sulphur-smoke is a famous disinfectant, and must render the fruit- 

 eater less liable to all those diseases originating in germs, either 

 microscopic or otherwise. Who knows but that a thorough 

 scientific investigation, bacteriological as well as chemical, would 

 prove the sulphur-poisoner to be, on the contrary, a conservator 

 of the public health? 



But whatever guilt the fumes of sulphur fasten upon the fruit- 

 grower, the almond-grower is clear of ; for he does not sulphur 

 his fruit at all. What he sulphurs is but the shell that is thrown 

 away that is, if he does his work properly. If he sulphurs 

 while the nuts are green, or wets them too much just before sul- 

 phuring, the fumes may penetrate to the kernel; especially of 

 very soft-shelled or paper-shelled almonds. But he gains nothing 

 by it, not even in the appearance of his nuts, and does it from 

 ignorance or inexperience rather than from policy. I tried this 

 thoroughly, and by watching closely the result of each experi- 

 ment was able to improve on the best advice my neighbors, old in 

 the business, could give me. First, our old bleacher being too 

 open, a new one was built. Then the almonds were made a little 

 drier than they need be to go to market. Then the water was 

 put on in the finest spray attainable, so that the nut was slightly 

 but evenly dampened, but little if any more than enough to make 

 up for the overdrying. Then the time of exposure to the fumes 

 was regulated, not by the watch, but by the quantity of sulphur 

 put into the pan, so that, whether we bleached in the daytime and 

 took out one bleacherful to make room for another, or went to 

 bed at night leaving the bleacher loaded and the sulphur burn- 

 ing, the nuts always got the same dose and no more. We kept 

 on until we found the minimum of moisture and the minimum of 

 sulphur that would do the business. 



The nuts came out of the bleacher looking beautifully, all the 



