REPORT OF TEE EORTICULTURIST 101 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



varieties may be readily peeled by placing them in boiling water two or three mia- 

 utes. The recipes follow : — 



1 Canning. — Pick the fruit when well coloured but a little hard, steam or cook 

 in a porcelain-lined kettle until tender, put in cans that have first been treated to 

 boiling water, and cover with boiling syrup made of equal parts of granulated sugar 

 and water, filling the can to the top ; then run a silver knife around the can inside 

 and let out the air, and seal at once. Plums cooked in the syrup are likely to be 

 tough. Canned plums may be used for pies and for mixing with or flavouring other 

 fruits. Plums are often canned without sugar to be used in winter for making fresh 

 plum butter. The juice of canned plums makes excellent jelly.' One lady recom- 

 mends splitting native plums to the stone on one side before cooking, to avoid 

 crumbling. 



'Drying. — DeSoto, Wyant and doubtless other varieties may be pared, pitted, 

 and spread on plates, lightly sprinkled with sugar and dried, first in the oven and later 

 in the sun. Cook like dried peaches. 



'Plum Jelly. — The fruit should be gathered when only part ripe — about half 

 coloured. This point is very essential. Put plums in a large granite or porcelain 

 kettle — the latter is best — with barely enough water to cover them. Cook until tender, 

 but not until they are in a pulpy mass. Having previously covered a large jar with a 

 cloth, strain the fruit in and let the juice drop through, but do not squeeze. When 

 all has drained through, strain once or twice more through another cloth, until the 

 juice is perfectly clear. To one measure of juice provide one measure of granulated 

 sugar, but do not put together at once. A very important point in the making of all 

 jelly is that only a small quantity should be cooked at one time. Into a medium 

 sized kettle put, say, four tumblers of juice ; let it boil briskly 15 or 20 minutes, 

 then add the four tumblers of sugar, and in a very short time — usually from three 

 to ten minutes — the jelly will be finished, light, clear and delicious. To test the jelly, 

 dip a spoon into the boiling juice and sugar and hold it up ; when the jelly clings 

 to the spoon in thick drops, take it off quickly and put into jelly glasses. The plum 

 pulp which is left can be put through a cullender and used for plum butter.' 



'Another recipe :—Plu m Preserves. — Take equal weights of fruit and sugar; 

 place in stone jar a layer of fruit, then a layer of sugar — alternating thus until quan- 

 tity desired is reached. Let stand over night ; in the morning drain off the syrup 

 that will have formed into a porcelain-lined kettle, place same over the fire and let 

 syrup come to a boil ; then pour it over fruit in jar again ; repeat this every day 

 until the fourth heating, when fruit and syrup are both put in kettle and boiled for 

 a few minutes. Place same in glass jars while hot, seal and put away in some cool 

 and preferably dark place. 



' Still another recipe. — To each pound of plums add a pound of sugar ; put the 

 fruit into boiling water until the skins will slip ; peel and sprinkle sugar upon each 

 layer of fruit in a bowl, allowing them to stand over night ; then pour off the juice, 

 bring quickly to a boil, skim and add the plums ; cook very slowly till tender and 

 clear, which will take about one-half hour ; take them out carefully and put into a 

 pan ; boil the syrup for a few minutes longer until it thickens ; pour it over the fruit; 

 seal or tie them up.' 



A better plum for this part of Canada will probably be obtained by crossing the 

 Nigra with the Americana, as it is possible that a variety may be originated which 

 will have the tough tree of the Nigra and the thinner skinned fruit of that species 

 with the productiveness and freedom from disease of the Americana and the quality 

 of that species. 



The trees at the Experimental Farm are ten feet apart in the rows, the rows being 

 20 feet apart ; this greater distance being required in order that the trees may be 

 thoroughly sprayed. Ten feet is a little too close in the rows, as the trees are already 



