REPORT OF STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 123 



a strong recommendation, and worth all the trouble and ex- 

 pense. The pressure in the steam box should not be over 

 one-eighth pound, prunes to be subjected from ten to fifteen 

 minutes ; pears, fifteen to twenty minutes ; and apples, one 

 and one-half to two minutes, and on removal immediatelv 

 transferred to the evaporator. 



Experiments made recently by Mr. Adam Fleckenstein in 

 his new evaporator, in which both the foregoing principles 

 were introduced, proved decidedly successful ; French prunes 

 yield forty-five pounds to the hundred, and Italians, thirt}^- 

 three pounds of evaporated product to one hundred pounds of 

 fresh fruit. 



Rapid evaporation, as claimed by some patentees as a point 

 of merit, is a great mistake. Nature, if left to her good offices, 

 will dry fruit very slowly in order to develop the saccharine 

 matter, and the closer we follow her the nearer right we are 

 — nature makes no mistakes. French prunes should never be 

 evaporated in less than twenty-four to thirty hours ; Italian 

 and Silver prunes, thirty-six to forty-two hours ; apples, in 

 six hours ; peeled pears, in twenty-four hours, and unpeeled 

 pears, forty-eight to sixty hours, 



I further find by actual experience that jDrunes should be 

 allowed to cool ofi^" while in process of evaporation, or, in other 

 words, the fires should be allowed to go out nights, and re- 

 lighted in the morning. Experiments made again by myself 

 and some others showed that prunes thus treated were mucli 

 sweeter, larger, heavier, more golden inside, meaty, and alto- 

 gether a superior fruit to those which were finished in a con- 

 tinuous heat. I hardly think it necessary to add that all 

 prunes should be dead ripe. 



POTASH AS A PRUNE FERTILIZER. 



While on the topic of prunes, the subject of fertilizing in 

 order to obtain larger prunes should be well understood. It 

 is a known fact that our soils are deficient in potash, and it is 

 another known fact that prunes are gross feeders of potash, 

 most of which goes to form the pit, and if there is any left it 

 helps to ]Dut on meat, and if not, the prune will be small. 

 In seasons when but few prunes are on a tree they are uni- 

 formly large, because there is usually potash enough for both 

 pit and meat, but if we have a full crop the prunes are sure 

 to be smaller, and sometimes very small, especially so with 



