STORING, PRESERVING, ETC. 89 



piece of tinfoil, and a neat label to each bottle finishes 

 the operation. 



Gooseberries are usually bottled green, and currants 

 when ripe. Plums should be gathered before they are 

 quite ripe, as in the case of some varieties, if allowed to 

 become fully ripe, the skin is apt to crack. 



Another mode of bottling has also lately been adopted, 

 by which the fruit is simply placed in the bottles, a liquid 

 poured over them and the bottles corked, without being 

 heated. The preparation of the liquid is at present a 

 trade secret, so that it cannot be given here. 



EVAPORATING. 



This is a means of preserving that promises to become 

 of considerable importance to all growers. The practice 

 of fruit evaporation in America and on the Continent has 

 during the last few years increased enormously. In 

 years of plenty, when fruit is low in price, any means of 

 preserving and converting it into a marketable com- 

 modity must be of value to the grower, and also a benefit 

 to the community. The use of the evaporator is there- 

 fore worth a more extended trial, as by its use the fruit 

 is not only preserved from waste, but its use is extended 

 over a lengthened period. 



In some figures given in the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's Journal for 1890, it is stated that in the State of 

 California alone, during 1888, the total weight of fruit 

 evaporated amounted to 31,450,000 Ibs., of the value of 

 431,590. There are several different makes of ap- 

 paratus in use, but Fig. 21 is the one that was awarded 

 the prize at the contest at the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's Jubilee Show at Windsor, and is now in opera- 

 tion at Chiswick, at the Royal Horticultural Society's 



