14 i 



Issued February 26, 1910. 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY Circular No. 51. 

 H. W. WILEY, Chief of Bureau. 



THE VALUE OF PEACHES AS VINEGAR STOCK. 



By II. C. GORE, 

 Assistant Chemist, Division of Foods. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The study of the value of peaches as vinegar stock was undertaken 

 to obtain information in regard to the utilization of surplus peaches. 

 It has been carried out on a scale sufficiently large to permit of the 

 results being readily applied to commercial practice. The following 

 subjects have been considered: (1) The composition of peach juice; 

 (2) the fermentation of ground peaches and the composition of the 

 resulting ciders; (3) the preparation and composition of peach vine- 

 gar; and (4) the chemical changes accompanying the decay of peaches 

 by Monilia, commonly known as " brown rot " (Sclerotiniafructigena). 



THE COMPOSITION OP PEACH JUICE. 



The peaches were obtained from different localities to determine 

 whether or not marked differences in composition exist between the 

 fruits grown in different sections. Each sample consisted of a six- 

 basket carrier of fruit weighing about 35 pounds. The samples had 

 been picked when market-ripe that is, when the fruit was fairly well 

 colored and filled out, but still firm. Each lot of peaches (with the 

 exception noted in Table 1 ) was ground by a rotary high-speed apple 

 grater of the usual form, which readily reduced the peach stones to 

 small pieces without injury to the knife edges. Samples of the juice 

 were then obtained by pressing out small portions of the ground fruit 

 in a cloth, by hand. The analyses given in Table 1 of four lots 

 of Elberta peaches and two samples of Belle (syn. Belle of Georgia) 

 indicate that but little variation exists in the composition of the same 



<* Except in the case of sample No. 14, which consisted of two half-bushel baskets 

 fruit. 



25241 Cir. 5110 



