LONG-BELL EXPERIMENTAL FARM 



671 



task trimming them out when the fruit 

 is set, so that the branches will not 

 break. 



North of the house are long rows of 

 grapes. To be exact there are thirty 

 rows of fifty vines each, and ten dif- 

 ferent varieties. There are three rows 

 of each variety, planted in the order 

 that they ripen. There are ripe grapes 

 on the Experiment farm from June 20 

 to September 10. The vines, which are 

 trained up on wire stretched on a T- 

 shaped trellis, are four years old this 

 year. Last year the weather was un- 

 favorable to grapes, but the year before, 

 when the vines were two years old, ten 

 thousand pounds of grapes were gather- 

 ed and sold. 



"There is no reason why this land 

 should not produce paying crops of 

 grapes," said Mr. Cranberry. "We 

 have experimented with many varieties 

 and these represent our final selections. 

 They all resemble the muscadine type, 

 which seems to be natural to this soil 

 and climate. I would advise the plant- 

 ing of the thick skinned grape, rather 

 than the thin skinned California varie- 

 ties, which do not seem to do so well." 



Just west of the grapes are long rows 

 of fig cuttings. They number 33,000, 

 and were all put out this spring, and, 

 Mr. Cranberry said, would begin to bear 

 this fall. 



THE PRESERVING PLANT. 



The pride of the Experiment farm 

 now is its preserving plant, where figs 

 are prepared for the market and whence 

 they go by the carload to Kansas City, 

 Chicago, New York, Baltimore, Phila- 

 delphia — in fact, to every large market, 

 although most of them are marketed by 

 the company's own Chicago agency. 



In his experiments with the fig, Mr. 

 Cranberry found no variety suitable for 

 marketing fresh, as the fruit will not 

 stand long-distance transportation. So 

 he sought the fig that would best answer 

 for preserving purposes, and finally 

 settled on the Magnolia fig, on account 

 of its attractive natural color as well 

 as it bearing qualities. 



The farm now has 8,000 fig trees four 

 years old, and many others coming on. 



A preserving plant was therefore a 

 necessity, and it was constructed in the 

 Long-Bell style. The building is com- 

 modious and comfortable. The preserv- 

 ing plant is equipped with six steam 

 jacketed copper kettles, each of seventy 

 gallons capacity. After being denuded 

 of their stems and carefully washed, the 

 figs are taken by a conveyor into the 

 kettles and there boiled by steam in a 

 34 degree syrup made of granulated 

 sugar for four and a half hours. 



Only pure granulated sugar and 

 water are used in the preserving proc- 

 ess, and no bleaching or coloring mat- 

 ter is used. The figs, still retaining their 

 natural color, are then put up in glass 

 jars of four, ten and sixteen ounce 

 capacity each, labeled. The utmost 

 pains are taken to insure sanitary hand- 

 ling and the fruit is not touched by 

 hands after it receives its preliminary 

 bath. 



The four ounce jars are put up for 

 the railroad dining car service mostly, 

 and are individual jars. The 10 and 

 16 ounce sizes are generally retailed in 

 stores. Any fruit that becomes mashed 

 or marred in cooking is packed and 

 sold as second quality. Last season, an 

 inquiry for 4,800 gallons was made for 

 the fruit, but so much of the output 

 was already contracted for that only 

 2,000 could be supplied. 



"The demand for our fig is always 

 sufficient to clean up our supply," Mr. 

 Cranberry said ; "so far, we have pre- 

 served figs only, but if the peach crop 

 is good, we may add peaches to our list 

 this year. We would have put up some 

 last year, but the peach crop was short 

 and our fruit brought two dollars a 

 crate, which is a better price than they 

 would have brought preserved." 



"Mr. Cranberry, what, in your 

 opinion, is the most profitable fruit for 

 the ordinary grower on a small scale to 

 raise?" he was asked. 



"Figs, undoubtedly," was the reply. 

 "Figs are practically without insect 

 enemies ; they grow with the minimum 

 amount of care and attention and begin 

 to bear from the first year, and the pre- 

 served fruit has a large market which 

 can hardly be oversupplied. 



"I can furnish a concrete example 



