Fairchild: The Grafted Jujube of China 



this late blooming habit. Since trees in 

 California and Texas first fruited, over 

 six years ago, they have never failed to 

 produce good crops. 



The fruits of the wild jujube, which 

 are produced in great abundance, are 

 only about one-half inch in diameter, 

 but some of the grafted Chinese varie- 

 ties are as large as the French prune. 

 They have a curious way of ripening, 

 which gives a mottled appearance to the 

 half ripe fruit. Brown spots appear 

 upon the perfectly green fruit and these 

 spread gradually until they meet and the 

 whole fruit becomes chestnut brown. 

 Shortly after the fruits turn brown they 

 begin to shrivel and lose their crispness 

 and become spongy. These dried juju- 

 bes form an important article of com- 

 merce in China, and deserve to be 

 studied here. 



When not over-ripe the jujubes have a 

 sweet delicate flavor, quite unlike any 

 other fruit, and a texture and crispness 

 which reminds one of a crabapple. One 

 becomes fond of them even though they 

 cannot be said to compare with other 

 fresh fruits like the pear or apple. The 

 ripe fruit contains a high per cent of 

 cane sugar — as much as 20%. 



It is as a prepared or candied fruit 

 that the jujube deserves to be most ser- 

 iously considered by American horticul- 

 turists, for when processed as the\^ are 

 by the Chinese, they compare favorably 

 with the Persian date in flavor and pala- 

 tability, and to the unobserving, they 

 might be mistaken for dates; in fact 



Europeans in China have persistently 

 confused them with the fruit of the date 

 palm. 



The preparation of candied jujube^: is 

 a simple culinary process consisting of 

 boiling the ripe fruits for tw^o hours in a 

 thick syrup consisting of one pound of 

 granulated sugar to one-half cupful of 

 hot water. Three pounds of jujubes 

 are put into this syrup in a low preserv- 

 ing kettle and boiled slowly for two 

 hours, and are then lifted out with a 

 strainer and dried in the sun or in a 

 heated oven. Some of the methods in 

 use in China are more complicated than 

 the above, honey being used as well as 

 sugar, and they make a better product. 



Mr. Frank N. Aleyer, who has seen 

 the process in China, reports that the 

 practice is to dry the jujube fruits, and 

 to boil them three different times in 

 sugar syrup, and afterwards in honey and 

 sugar. Then, by slashing the skins af- 

 ter the second boiling with a special tool, 

 which cuts the skin into narrow longi- 

 tudinal strips, a remarkable confection 

 is produced which is comparable with 

 the best Algerian or Persian Gulf date. 



What will be the fate of the Chinese 

 grafted jubube in America it is impos- 

 sible to predict, but it has shown its 

 possibilities to hundreds of Am.erican 

 horticulturists and their ingenuity and 

 enterprise may be depended upon to 

 develop its culture in the big compre- 

 hensive way in which they have de- 

 veloped the grape fruit, the olive, the 

 date, the avocado and other fruits 

 new to America. 



An Outline of Applied Sociology 



OUTLINE OF APPLIED SOCIOLOGY, 

 by Hcniy Pratt Faircliild, Ph.D., assistant 

 professor of the science of society in Yale 

 University. Pp. 353, price vSL75. New York, 

 the Macmillan Company, 66 Fifth avenue, 

 1916. 



Dr. Fairchild discusses eugenics and 

 feminism together in a chapter en- 

 titled "Revolutionary Schemes." He 

 sees much value in such work as the 

 elimination of the feebleminded, but 

 thinks constructive eugenics will ap- 

 peal least to those who need it most. 

 "It must be observed, however," he 

 says, "that the eugenics movement. 



as far as its leaders are concerned, 

 makes no extreme claims, nor ad- 

 vocates policies which it is not pre- 

 pared to support. In this it differs 

 diametrically from feminism. Eu- 

 genics is thoroughly scientific." Dr. 

 Fairchild is probably open to the criti- 

 cism of construing eugenics too nar- 

 rowly; as a fact, most of the hundred 

 pages he devotes to questions of the 

 family and population may be said to 

 deal with eugenics. This part of the 

 work will be of great value to eugenists, 

 for it is clear, sensible, and interesting. 



