92 FRUIT CULTURE. 



(H,0), so that now we have an entirely different com- 

 pound, to wit, glucose, or fruit sugar, which will assist in 

 the preservation of the fruit, instead of being liable to 

 decomposition as the dried starch is in sun-dried or 

 slowly dried products. 



" ' All the pectine, or fruit jelly, remains in the cells 

 undecomposed, or is left upon the surface by the evapora- 

 tion of the water in which it was dissolved, and may be 

 seen condensed upon the surface, instead of being decom- 

 posed, and passing on with the starch and gluten into the 

 acetic fermentation. The diastase or saccharine ferment 

 contained in all fruit, and which is the primary cause of 

 its decay, has been rendered inoperative, and all germs 

 of animal or vegetable life have been destroyed by the 

 high heat. It is by this chemical change which I have 

 briefly described, in uniting a part of the water already 

 contained in the fruit with the fruit starch, that these 

 truly evaporated products are rendered more wholesome, 

 more digestible, more indestructible, and are thereby 

 made more valuable, not only as articles of food, but 

 because they are not subject to deterioration and loss. 

 And it is also the reason why a bushel of apples will 

 make more pounds of evaporated fruit than can be made 

 by sun-drying it, as a portion of the contained water 

 which would otherwise be lost is retained by combining 

 with the starch to form glucose, and the carbonic acid, 

 which is always lost in the slow decomposition resulting 

 from sun-drying, is retained in its natural combination 

 with the other substances composing the fruit, and hence 

 it is heavier. These profitable and healthful chemical 

 changes which I have mentioned are all in accordance 

 with the laws of nature, and are certain to take place if 

 the necessary conditions of heat and air, as I have detailed 



