Annual Meetmg at St. Joseph. 201 



true. I have heard many assert that they find it possessed of a very 

 acrid disagreeable taste and they are undoubtedly correct in the be- 

 lief that much of it is absolutely poisonous. 



If you will examine into the practice of some, or many of the 

 manufacturers in the use of the cold sulphur bleach you will dis- 

 cover the cause of this distate, and an additional cause for the 

 depression in market prices. 



This is all unnecessary and woise than useless. Much hand- 

 somer looking fruit, and perfectly pure and free from the least 

 smell or taste of sulphurous acid, can be made with the hot bleach 

 used by the best evaporators and soon the dealers must learn to dis- 

 criminate between ^?^re and poisonous products, and the unhygienic 

 methods driven out of use. 



I shall not take time to say all that the subject of evaporation 

 of vegetables deserves, but I believe that it is soon destined to 

 occujDy a place of almost or quite as much importance as that of 

 fruit evaporation. 



The profits in evaporated sweet potatoes are even greater than 

 they are on any of our fruits and the product is said to be even 

 superior to the green tubers in richness of flavor, some varieties 

 yielding from five hundred to eight hundred dollars worth of evap- 

 orated products per acre. 



I was sorry not to hear the paper expected from Dr. McPher- 

 son, of Springfield, on "Evaporating the Raspberry," as I am 

 informed that it has been found very profitable in Michigan and 

 that many cultivators there are engaging in its production for this 

 purpose. 



No fruit retains its original aroma and flavor so perfectly after 

 evaporation as the red raspberry, and it must on that account 

 continue to hold its place at the head on the price list of evapor- 

 ated fruits. 



With the earnest hope that the subject of evaporation may 

 receive more attention and examination by our horticulturists and 

 that we 'may soon herald the day when the fruit grower will not 

 look with less unconcern upon the sinful waste of his fruit by lack 

 of means for its preservation than the thrifty farmer would upon 

 the loss of one-third of his wheat crop for lack of machinery, and 

 with the belief that that day will bring us a cycle nearer the 

 millennium, I am, Yours hopefully, 



H. M. HOFFMAN. 



