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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST* [January i, 1886, 



yams, pines, peanuts, and bananas. It was purchased 

 with the special object of gowing pines and bananas 

 for exportatiou to the Australian colonies and New 

 Zealand. With the S. S. " Suva " running regularly, as 

 she does, to catch the outgoing steamers, special 

 facilities are offered to fruit growers on Taviuni. The 

 fear that the steamer may be taken off the line has, 

 perhaps, somewhat retarded cultivation in the fruit 

 direction. But a pushing energetic company like the 

 If. 8. S. Co. of New Zealand is not likely to abandon 

 a trade if it gives any promise of future success. 

 I'.efore I close I may say there is a plentiful sup- 

 ply of water on this estate. 



FRUIT PEESERVES. 



The ppst season has been in many respects an ex- 

 ceptionally good one tor the mauufactu:er of fruit 

 preserves. This industry is increasing yearly in im- 

 portance, and seems likely, before long, as in the cise 

 of many oti^er industries, to fall almost eutirely into 

 the hands of the larger houses who have the command 

 of bufficient capital to bring the resources of machinery 

 to bear upon the different processes employed. 



During the height of the preserving season we had 

 an opportunity of visiting the London factory of Messrs. 

 0. Moir & Sous, where fruit of all descriptions is 

 preserved on a large scale. The raw material, con- 

 sisting of baskets of strawberries, currants, goose- 

 berries, &c., is gathered in the market gardens which 

 surrouml the metiopolis at the earliest hours in the 

 morning, it being a point with this firm that all fruit 

 should be converted into jam before the evening of the 

 day on which it is plucked. In the boiling room there 

 are long rows of jacketted copper pans each of about 

 60 gallons capacity. Steam at a pressure of about 50 

 lb. to the square inch is admitted into the jacket and 

 the fruit is poured into the pan. Each pan is served 

 from above by a trough through which the loaf sugar, 

 having been previously crushed in a mill and weighed 

 by an automatic apparatus, is shot on to the fruit and 

 tiie whole is boiled for a sufficient time. Some of the 

 pans are made to swing on truunions, the steam passing 

 through the latter as in an oscillatiug engine, whilst 

 others are provided with an ingenious valve arrange- 

 ment for emptying, in which case the necessary oper- 

 ations can be performed without tilting at all. The 

 latter arrangement is found a great convenience in 

 practical work, as it takes less time and occupies less 

 space. In order to preserve the flavour of the fruit 

 it is necessary that no water should be used in cleansing 

 it, and consequently many ingenious devices have to 

 be introduced for the purpose. In the case of red 

 currants, for instance, which seem somehow to possess 

 a special power for attracting " matter out of place," 

 a cylindrical sieve containing revolving brushes of a 

 peculiar description is used. This runs at a speed of 

 1,'JUO revolutions per minute. The fruit passes through 

 the sieve, whilst the stalks and other refuse are dis- 

 charged at the lower end perfectly dry. 



For making fruit jellies the fruit is boiled and the 

 first of the juice separated by means of open straining 

 bags. The fruit is |then placed in a centrifugal separ- 

 ator, consisting of an open-work basket rotated by a 

 vertical shaft. This runs at a great speed and almost 

 instantaneously separates the fluid parts of the fniit 

 from the hkins and seeds. There is also a somewhat 

 extensive hydraulic plant, consisting of pumping engines 

 and presses, which is used with some fruits in place 

 of the centrifugal machine for making jellies. As these 

 jellies are slightly acid earthenware vessels, pipes, and 

 taps are used in their preparation. 



It is said by those interested in this trade, that 

 through the excessive competition of the present day in 

 the jam-making industry, firms that manufacture a good 

 article from sound fruit can only manage to exist by 

 means of the closest attention to economy in pro- 

 duction. However this may be, Messrs. Rloir & Sons 

 appear to have brought their labour-saving appliances 

 to a high degree of perfection, and this most noticeably 

 in the "filling room." The material is here carried in 

 copper pans with wheels running on a tramway, and 



passes by gravity on to a hydraulic lift which raises it 

 to an overhead gantry. Eeneath the latter is a range 

 of filling ves.sels, and the pan, which is fitted with a 

 valve at the bottom, stops over each vessel and delivers 

 the exact quantity of material required, lleueath the 

 filling vessels the jampots (which have been pi-n-iuusly 

 washed in a steam-driven machine) are brought up by 

 an automatic arrairgemeut, each pot slopping in turn 

 until it receives its full complement of preserve, when 

 it passes on to make room for the next. In this way 

 thirty to forty thousand pots of jam are fiUeil in an 

 ordinary day's work, the attention of one man or boy 

 to each set of apparatus being alone required. It is 

 the fashion now to pack a good deal of the best quahty 

 of jam in gla^s bottles, and these are filled in the same 

 way. No mrchinery has, v.-e believe, yet been devised 

 by which ine or'tmary cover can be stretched and tied 

 over a jampot, but the uottles have long been closed 

 by an automatic arrangement. The stopper consists 

 of a stout tin ca^-sule, inside which is a tbi.i disc of 

 cork provided for the pui-pose of preventing contact 

 between the fruit and the meta,. The cork and 

 capsule having been put in position, the bottle is held 

 firmly in a revolving holder by means of a weight. A 

 pair of rollers are brought up to the capsule and close 

 it under the projecting flauge on the neck of the 

 bottle. Each nnichine will turn out about oOO bottles 

 pL-r hour inordinary work. The quickness aud precision 

 with which the jampots and bottles are automatically 

 taken from the stacks and marshalleil into rows, and 

 are then brought up to be filled by the various machines, 

 is not a little comical at first sight. In another 

 department of this factory pickles are made by the 

 ordinary process, or rather what should be the ordinary 

 process, only distilled vinegar being used in place of 

 the coarser acids which are employed by less scrupulous 

 manufacturers. 



There is a building set apart for making the tins 

 used on the premises. Here there are power presses 

 and stamps driven by a separate engine. We under- 

 stand that over litiOO packages an hour are sometimes 

 turned out from this departiiient. Steam machinery 

 is also used for stamping the circular pieces of paper 

 which are used lor covering the jampots. Although 

 the machinery here in use for making tin packages is 

 comparatively new, it will shortly be superseiled by 

 an entirely fresh plant of novel de>ign by which the 

 labour will be still further reduced. The machines 

 have been especially designed for the firm, aud we hope 

 to be able to publish particulars of them at a future 

 time. This firm has other factories at Abeuleeu, 

 Wilmington, Delaware, and Seville. At the latte 

 establishment urange niarmalaile alone is made. Th 

 works of Messrs. Moir & Sons are instructive it only 

 for the purpose of showing how largely machinery is 

 now used in every branch of industry, even in one so 

 apparently simple as making jam. — Eiiyineerinc/. 

 ^ 



Sooi-Watek for Plants. — The London Qarikn says: 

 " If you merely make a mixture of soot and water, 

 you have a crude aud dirty thing to deal with ; and 

 the right way is to put a bushel of soot into a well- 

 made canvas bag, into which a heavy piece of old iron 

 lias previously been thrown as a sinker; then tie up 

 the bag tightly, and tbrovv it into a tank or large 

 butt of pure fain or river water. None of the crude 

 carbon makes its escape : but you have all the ammonia 

 aud other essential component parts of tho soot, which 

 are really soluble ; and, either for syringing or water 

 ing, it is of the utmost value." — Popuhtr Sciciwe Nen'.-i, 



QUININK MANUlAt'TDHED I.N CUVI.OX HV MES.SUS. SvMONS 



AND CocHKAN. — We have had the opportunity of iu- 

 specting about a pound of Sulphato of Quiaine locally 

 manufactured by Messrs. Symons and Cocliranat their 

 laboratory. Tlie quiiiiiio ii a beautifully white color 

 but is nut so flaky as Howard's ciuinine. We do 

 not supiiose that c|uiuiue will ever be locally man- 

 ufactured for the market, for it is not a meivautile 

 speculation which many men would car.- to eml ark in, 

 hut tho sample of .juiuiue mnde by the tfto above- 

 named gentlemen is worthy of inspection for all that. 

 —Local "Times." 



