416 VINEGAR, CIDER, AND FRUIT- WINES. 



color are brought into the market ? The color has nothing to do 

 with the quality of the product, but its sale depending on its ap- 

 pearance the apples and pears are bleached before^ evaporating. 

 The process is very simple : a number of trays are placed on top 

 of each other, and a bundle of sulphur matches ignited under 

 them. Sometimes lime is slacked under such a pile of trays, the 

 fruit being in both cases bleached by the ascending vapors. Others 

 again place the fruit for some time in a water-bath impregnated 

 with sulphur. These methods are mentioned, not to recommend 

 them, but rather to warn against them, and, besides, because it is 

 frequently believed that the pale color of the fruit is due to a 

 more perfect method of drying. The use of sulphur for this 

 purpose deserves censure, it being injurious to health, and the con- 

 sumer should prefer naturally colored evaporated fruit to the 

 bleached article, which is readily recognized by its pale color. 

 There is but one method leading to the same result which can be 

 unhesitatingly used, that is, to throw the fruit when pared into 

 salt water, where it is allowed to remain until placed in the trays. 

 The color is not as pale as that obtained by bleaching, but it is 

 more natural which, in our opinion, is an advantage. Decay set- 

 ting in immediately after the fruit is cut, it should be brought 

 into the evaporating tower as soon as possible. A warm salt- 

 water bath is also frequently used for stone fruit which is to be 

 evaporated without removing the stones, in order to better retain 

 its natural appearance. The same purpose can, however, be 

 better attained by the use of a bath of lukewarm or cold alum 

 water, which can also be advantageously employed in preserving 

 the fruit in jars and cans. Plums after evaporating are generally 

 brought into a bath of sugar-water in order to give them the lus- 

 trous and uniformly dark appearance observed in French prunes. 

 For this purpose brown sugar is dissolved in an equal quantity 

 of hot water, and the prunes in a wire basket submerged in the 

 bath for half a minute. They are then spread out upon hurdles 

 and packed when perfectly dry. 



The trays which are to be placed in the evaporating tower 

 must not be loaded too heavily with fruit. Stone-fruit not freed 

 from the stones js placed close together with the stem end upwards, 

 but only in one layer. Quartered or halved stoned-fruit, as well 



