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The first process to which it is then subjected is the separation of the fruit from 

 the rind. This is done by women, who, seated around a large vessel, take out the 

 fruit, skillfully gouge out the inside with a few rapid motions of the forefinger and 

 thumb, and throwing this aside place the rind unbroken in a vessel alongside them. 



The rind is next carried to large casks filled with fresh cold water, in which it is 

 immersed for between 2 and 3 days to rid it of the salt it has absorbed. When taken 

 out of these casks the rinds are boiled with the double object of making them tender 

 and of completely driving out any trace of salt that may be still left in them. For 

 this purpose they are boiled in a large copper cauldron for a time varying from 1 to 

 2 hours, according to the quality of the fruit and the number of days it has been im- 

 mersed in the brine. When removed from this cauldron the peel should be quite free 

 from any flavor of salt, and at the same time be sufficiently soft to absorb the sugar 

 readily from the sirup, in which it is now ready to be immersed. 



The next process to which the rind is subjected is that of a slow low absorption of 

 sugar, and this occupies no less than 8 days. Needless to say that the absorption of 

 sugar by fresh fruit in order to be thorough must be slow, and not only stow, but it 

 must be gradual that is to say, the fruit should at first be treated with a weak solution 

 of sugar, which may then be gradually strengthened, for the power of absorption is 

 one that grows by feeding. The fruit (and this holds good more especially with the 

 rind) would absorb with difficulty and more slowly if plunged at once into thick 

 sirup than if gradually treated with weak solution easier of absorption, and by 

 which it has been thoroughly permeated first. It is a knowledge of this fact that 

 governs the process I now describe. 



The fruit has now passed into what I may call the saturating room, whereon every 

 side are to be seen long rows of immense earthen ware vessels about 4 feet high and 2-J 

 feet in diameter, in outline roughly resembling the famed Etruscan jar, but with a 

 girth altogether out of proportion to their height, and with very short necks and large, 

 open mouths. All the vessels are filled to their brims with citron and orange peel in 

 every stage of absorption, i. e., steeped in sugar of (roughly speaking) eight different 

 degrees of strength. I said before that this is a process that occupies almost always 

 8 days, and as the sirup in each jar is changed every day, we may divide the mass of 

 vessels before us into groups of eight. Take one group of this number, and we are 

 able to follow the fruit completely through this stage of its treatment. With vessels 

 of such great size and weight, holding at least half a ton of fruit and sirup, it is 

 clearly easier to deal with the sirup than with the fruit. To take the fruit out of one 

 solution and to place it into the next stronger, and so on, throughout the series, 

 would be a toilsome process, and one, moreover, injurious to the fruit. In each of 

 these jars, therefore, is fixed a wooden well, into which a simple suction-pump being 

 introduced the sirup is pumped from each jar daily into the adjoining one. 



" How is the relative strength of the sirup in each jar regulated?" is the next ques- 

 tion. "The fruit itself does that," is the foreman's reply; and this becomes clear 

 from the following explanations : Number your group of jars from 1 to 8 respectively, 

 and assume No. 1 to be that which has just been filled with peel brought straight 

 from the boiler, in which it has been deprived of the last trace of salt, and No. 8 to 

 contain that which, having passed through every stage of absorption but the last, is 

 now steeped in the freshly prepared and therefore strongest solution of sirup used 

 in this stage. "We prepare daily a sirup of the strength of 30 degrees, measured by 

 the 'provino,' a graduated test for measuring the density of the sirup," continued the 

 foreman, "and that is poured upon the fruit in jar No. 8. To-morrow the sirup frt m 

 this jar, weakened by the absorption from it by the fruit of a certain proportion of 

 sugar, will be pumped into jar No. 7, and so on daily through the series. Thus, No. 

 1, containing the fruit itself, regulates the strength of the sirup, as I said." "But 

 if the sirup has lost all its strength before the seventh day, or arrival at jar No. 1?" 

 we ask. "Care must be taken to prevent that, by constant testing with the * pro- 

 vino,' " is the reply ; " and if that is found to be the case, a little stronger sirup must 

 be added to the jar." 



