STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 39 



cast" I can only acquiesce cheerfully and try to tell you the little I 

 really know about canning fruit for exhibition purposes, and for 

 daily use during the winter months. We use only the Mason self- 

 sealing jar, granulated sugar, and deem it a most important point to 

 have tlDe fruit in a fresh and perfect condition, for it is almost an 

 impossibility to keep fruit successfully when it has been picked any 

 length of time. Berries are especially perishable and require prompt 

 attention. 



We pick our berries and put them in the refrigerator until we 

 are ready to can them, for they lose much of their fine flavor if ex- 

 posed to the air. If it is the intention to use them for exhibition, 

 the finest and largest fruit is selected, packed as tightly in the cans 

 as possible without bruising. Then prepare a syrup composed of 

 one teacupful of sugar and two teacupsful of hot water boiled until 

 the sugar is dissolved and then poured over the fruit. Place the can 

 in a kettle of luke-warm water, put on the lid loosely and let it boil 

 until the fruit is done, which can easily be ascertained by tasting, 

 (Mamma says that I always feel it my duty to taste it quite often.) 

 If it is sufficiently cooked to be palatable, screw the top on and leave 

 it for five minutes longer, then take it off the stove, examine the lid 

 to be sure that it is perfectly tight and set away to cool. 



Buy new rubbers every year, the old ones are unfit to use again. 



Red and black raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, cranberries, 

 barberries, currants, apples, rhubarb, pineapple, peaches, plums, 

 oranges, lemons, grapes and cherries may all be found quite satis- 

 factory if canned by this method. 



Pears, quinces and figs require a different treatment. They 

 must be cooked slowly in syrup until the blade of a pen-knife can be 

 readily passed through them, fill the cans and seal very quickly. In 

 canning for daily use, all the above mentioned fruits can be cooked 

 in the syrup (with the exception of the red raspberries and peaches), 

 filled into the cans and sealed up directly, thus greatly simplifying 

 the process, and the fruit will taste just as good, but will not pre- 

 sent so perfect an appearance. We do not use the old-fashioned 

 recipe for preserves, the " pound for pound of our grandmother's 

 time;" but, instead, take less sugar, do not cook them so long, and 

 seal in jars precisely as we do the canned fruit. 



In conclusion let me urge everyone who can, to save fruit for 

 winter use, the home-made article is so much superior to any that 

 can be purchased in the market, and although the labor of canning 

 fruit is considerable, yet I think one is amply repaid for that by the 

 pleasure it gives to others and the satisfaction one feels in having 

 produced something creditable enongh to prove a welcome addition 

 to the table when "friends drop in to tea." 



