4G 



or Karo with it. 



ME, HUTCHINS : One other question, — speaking about 

 the Japanese plums ripening before putting them up. You 

 would have trouble in keeping plums on the trees until they 

 get ripe. They fall oft' and decay. 



PROFESSOR CHENOWBTIi : I didn 't mean they were 

 very soft, soft all the way through. But I was in a commer- 

 cial cannery last summer, I think it was August, and they 

 Vverc caiming their plums that had just a faint rosy tint on 

 them. If they had been allowed to ripen, they would be 

 pvuLticially rod all over. They wei'e very green, very acid,- — 

 they never could make as nice plums out of, that kind of stuff. 

 If you let those plums ripen up until a large percentage of 

 them are what you would call almost in eating condition, 

 keep them a day or two after you pick them off the tree, if 

 necessary, until they begin to get fairly well ripened, then 

 you can use those plums to a much better advantage than a 

 green plum. 



The same thing holds true as it did with those grapes. 

 In ten days they increased 12 per cent, in sugar. Take the 

 Baldwin apple: Analysis shows that in September it is about 

 10 per cent, sugar. In November, when it is ripe, it is about 

 14 or 15 per cent, sugar; and so it is with your plums. The 

 more nearly ripe you can get them the better they are for 

 canning or anything else. 



MR. PUTNAM : Dues that rule apply to making jellies ? 



PROFESSOR CHENOWETH: It will apply to making 

 jellies with this exception : That you want to be sure that 

 your fruits are not any more than ripe. There is the trouble. 

 Tf you can go out into your own garden and pick your own 

 fruits to make jellies I certainly would say wait until they 

 are ripe. If you have to buy your fruit from your market 

 man or from your groAver, then you may have to buy some 

 before they are fully ripe in order to get them to jell. Af- 

 ter a fruit has passed its acme of development, its highest 

 quality, then it loses its jelling quality. 



MR. PUTNA]\T: As fniit growers the most pra'^'tical use 



