THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



125 



raising of new tulips may have pro- 

 duced. 



There is also a variety known as the 

 Parrot Tulip (Fig. 5), having long, loose, 



Fio. 5.— Parhot Tulip. 



fringed petals, the most of them having 

 three or four colors, yellow, ciimson, 

 orange and green intermingled, the yel- 

 low color, however, usually predominat- 

 ing. They, are very brilliant and 

 showy, and will be particularly in- 

 teresting to those who are not familiar 

 with their peculiar form. 



The Tulip holds a conspicuous posi- 

 tion in the history of commercial specu- 

 lations. It hardly seems possible that 

 men, business men. shrewd and calcu- 

 lating, should have been so beside them- 

 selves m to value a single tulip bulb at 

 one and two thousand dollara. A 

 Harlaem merchant paid half his fortune 

 for a tulip that he might keep it in his 

 garden for the admiration of his visi- 

 tors. In 1635 the tulip mania had 

 seized upon all classes, and speculation 

 in tulip bulbs took the place of ordinary 



business. Upwards of $46,500 was 

 paid for forty bulbs, and a sailor is said 

 to have eaten a tulip bulb, mistaking it 

 for an onion, the value of which would 

 have furnished a princely dinner party. 



DRIED FOODS. 



At present we export to Europe 

 about 6,000,000 pounds of evaporated 

 apples. The process is extremely 

 simple. The fruit is " cored " and sliced 

 into pieces one-sixteenth of an inch in 

 thickness ; it is then exposed to sulphur 

 fumes, which arrest all fermentation, 

 and then to a dry hot blast of air, which 

 reduces it to about half its original 

 weight. The sulphur fumigation pre- 

 vents the fruit from becoming dark, 

 and after drying it is almost as white 

 as when first cut. Simple as is this 

 process, it costs about twice as much as 

 drying the fruit in the sun, but such is 

 the saving in weight and flavor that it 

 is preferred, and evaporated apples sell 

 to day in the European markets for fif- 

 teen cents a pound. 



An old produce dealer interested in 

 the European export trade told an 

 Evening Post reporter that in view of 

 the astounding magnitude of the export 

 trade in food products, it would not be 

 surprising to hear of attempts at com- 

 pressing or drying every product of the 

 country. The same process as that 

 applied to apples has been used with 

 sonpe success with peaches, and some 

 berries that can be grown cheaply, and 

 as the export of dried food products 

 increases, the import is constantly de- 

 creasing. The raisins from California 

 promis<^ to drive all foreign raisins out 

 of our markets. There are vineyards 

 of hundreds of acres in Placer, El 

 Dorado, Los Angelos, San Diego, and 

 other counties, given up to growing and 

 drying grapes, partly by evaporation 

 and partly by sun heat. 



