96 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



should be cooked in their own juices. The ways are almost legion in which 

 we can utilize this excellent fruit. 



We ought to have peaches, we ought to have all we want if we can get 

 them. We are not so tiure of them as of the apple. They are delighttul. 

 Everyone is fond of peaches, or ought to be. If one were to say he is not 

 fond of this lovely fruit we should be afraid of him, we would naturally con- 

 clude he was destitute of a cultivated taste. This delicate food is so perish- 

 able that we resort to various ways of preserving, such as canning, spicing, 

 pickling, jellying, etc. In each they are delicious if carefully and properly 

 done. Many persons, I think, make a great mistake in canning peaches. 

 They sacrifice too much for looks. Canned peaches are often lovely to 

 the eye but utterly flat and insipid to the taste. I believe in a due 

 regard for looks, and admit that food which is pleasing to the eye, is 

 often more gratifying to the taste, but this should not be carried too far. 

 Peaches are often put up in a too unripe state — too hard — that they may 

 come through the process retaining their form in an unbroken condition. 

 This is a great mistake. To have this lovely fruit perfect we should allow it 

 to remain on the tree until fully ripe, until by taking it in your hand it yields 

 readily to the pressure. They should then be prepared, placed in a steamer, 

 and steamed until the juices are thoroughly cooked, which may be known 

 by their settling down in the dish. They should then be slipped out care- 

 fully into a bright pan and allowed to become perfectly cold. Then add three 

 fourths pound of white sugar. Put over the tire and bring to a boiling point, 

 or allow them just to boil up, then remove and can immediately. If care- 

 fully done the fruit will not be broken, you will have all the delicious aroma 

 of a peach ripened and colored on the tree, and the syrup will be beautifully 

 clear, almost white. By this process the natural flavor of the fruit is retained 

 to a much greater degree than by any other method I have ever tried. It is 

 also economical, as the long boiling of sugar with acid fruit converts cane 

 into grape sugar, and we lose one-fifth of its sweetening qualities. 



Pears should be grown in abundance. They are very delicious when they 

 are right — I mean the best varieties. Flemish Beauty and Bartlett are nice 

 for canning. Too much can not be said in favor of canned pears. Some 

 fruit is greatly injured by cooking but this lovely fruit bears cooking very 

 well. Baked in a light puff paste, with no flavoring but their own, canned 

 pears make a delicate and delicious pie. Cooked in spiced sjrup, made of 

 best vinegar one pint and three pounds good sugar, they make an appetizing 

 pickle for the tea-table. They can be dried as readily as apples, and this is 

 a good way of saving a surplus. 



The quince has always been esteemed a very choice fruit. This is because 

 it can only be grown in certain localities, and also on account of its high and 

 peculiar flavor and rich and lovely looks. Quinces canned by the process 

 named for peaches would require longer cooking, and a little water to the 

 sugar to make sufficient syrup. Quinces make one of the loveliest jellies, as 

 we all know. 



Plums and cherries are always prized as delicious, and are nice in any and 

 every way. 



In the warm June days comes the strawberry, that prince of berries, with 

 its delicious coolness, to refresh us. I would particularly recommend the 

 process named for canning peaches, only more sugar should be added — one 



