EVAPORATION OF FRUIT. 415 



sides long enough to fold over. Then nail down the lid, take off 

 the bottom, and commence packing by placing one layer of slices 

 in the manner of roof-tiles. Sufficient fruit to make up the re- 

 quired weight is then piled in, and after pressing down the box is 

 nailed up and labelled. A general rule as regards weight has not 

 been introduced, though in California all varieties of evaporated 

 fruit are packed in boxes holding 50 pounds net. 



Now a few words in regard to the varieties of fruit to be used. To 

 be sure every kind of fruit can be evaporated, but poor qualities 

 remain bad after evaporation. No one who wishes to be success- 

 ful in the business should for one moment entertain the idea that 

 fruit unpalatable in a fresh state is good enough for evaporating. 

 For commercial purposes the selection of varieties must be made 

 as carefully as for fresh fruit, or, briefly stated, only table fruit 

 should be evaporated, this referring especially to apples and pears, 

 of which the mellow and luscious varieties alone should be se- 

 lected. The intelligently conducted evaporating establishments in 

 this country are very careful in this respect, they having like the 

 canning establishments certain favorites, for instance, of apples, 

 the Gravenstein, Red Astrachan, Autumn Pippin, Newtown Pip- 

 pin, Bellflower, Baldwin, Northern Spy ; of pears, the Bartlett, 

 Autumn Butler Pear, Clapp's Favorite ; of plums, Reine Claude, 

 Coe's Golden Drop, Columbia, Washington ; of cherries, Royal 

 Ann and Elton. No discrimination is made in regard to berries, 

 peaches, and apricots, all varieties being used. 



Apples should be pared with a machine and sliced. So many 

 different styles of apple parers are in the market that it is diffi- 

 cult to say which is the best. One which pares, cores, and slices 

 the apple at one operation should be selected. Pears are better 

 pared by hand, and peaches with a rotary knife parer. 



Stone-fruit is sometimes stoned, which is effected with the well 

 known stoning machine, but as the different kinds of machines in 

 the market are by no means perfect, it is best for prime ware to 

 remove the stones by hand until some ingenious head invents a 

 machine which will bruise the fruit as little as the human hand. 



Apples and pears when pared acquire a brown coloration, which 

 is not lost by drying no matter by what method. Now how is it 

 that many apples and pears of a white yellow or pale yellow 



