35<> THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



" The fruit is then placed in earthen pans, and covered with the syrup, where it is left to remain about a week. 

 The sugar enters the fruit and displaces what juice remained after the scalding process. 



" The fruit now requires careful watching, as fermentation will soon take place, and when this has reached a cer- 

 tain stage the fruit and syrup are heated to a boiling degree, which checks the fermentation. This heating process 

 should be repeated as often as necessary for about six weeks. 



" The fruit is then taken out of the syrup, and washed in clean water, and it is then ready to be either glaced or 

 crystallised, as the operator may wish. If glaced the fruit is dipped in thick, sugar syrup, and left to dry quickly in 

 the open air. If to be crystallised, it is dipped in the same kind of syrup, but is made to cool and harden slowly, 

 thus causing the sugar which covers the fruit to crystallise. The fruit is now ready for boxing and shipping. Fruit 

 thus prepared will keep in any climate and stand transportation." (Prize Essay, State Board Horticulture, 1888, by 

 Mr. J. J. Pratt, of the Yuba City Cannery, California.) 



Crystallised fruit sells well ; most of that sold in this country is imported from France, and obviously a great 

 deal of it might be displaced by British, if the same knowledge were acquired here and taste exercised in its pro- 

 duction. 



Fruit Drying. This has been recommended as a panacea for the low prices of fruit 

 in great abundance years. The arguments in favour of the practice were mainly 



Fig. 88. IMPEOVED COTTER OF APPLE RINGLETS, " SIMPLEX." 



derived from American sources. In California, 12,150,000 pounds of various fruits are 

 dried annually. Of that amount 100,000 pounds are sun-dried, and 250,000 pounds 

 evaporated apples ; 200,000 pounds of sun-dried, and 40,000 pounds of bleached plums ; 

 and 25,000 pounds of sun-dried pears. These represent the fruits likely to be " evapor- 

 ated " (if at all) in this country. 



Of the principal fruits dried in California (and it is similar in other countries exporting dried fruits) there is not 

 a golden prospect of drying profitably in this country, for the raw material is worth more relatively than the manu- 

 factured goods. 



Mr. Pidgeon's (" Royal Agricultural Society's Journal," for March, 1890), states that in the western portion 

 of New York State, a district lying within a radius of forty miles around the city of Rochester, produced in 

 1888, 37,750,000 pounds of evaporated fruit (all but 750,000 pounds of which were apples) of the value of ,297,000. 

 Mr. Pidgeon states that to produce this amount, 250,000,000 pounds (111,000 tons) of green applet, and 250,000 quarts 

 of fresh raspberries were operated on ; 19,000 tons of coals were burnt in 1,500 drying houses (each containing one 



