566 



EUTERPE 



EVAPORATING 



oler&cea, Mast. CABBAGE PALM. Fig. 801. Stem 

 60-100 ft., scarcely 1 ft. in diam. at base, attenuate 

 above, flexuous: Ivs. arcuate-spreading, 4-6 ft. long, the 

 apex more or less deflexed; segments pendent, linear- 

 lanceolate, the upper 2 ft. long, 1 in. wide, many-nerved. 

 Braz. Fig. 801 is adapted from Martins' Nat. Hist, of 

 Palms. 



801. Euterpe oleracea. 



montana, R. Grah. Stem 10 ft. high, swollen at the 

 base, ringed: Ivs. 9 ft. long, elliptical-obovate ; segments 

 lanceolate, entire, glabrous, alternate; petiole 2 ft. long, 

 scaly beneath, unarmed : rachis plano-convex below, 

 subtriangular towards the apex. Grenada. B.M. 3874. 



JARED G. SMITH. 



Euterpes constitute a small group of spineless palms, 

 said to include 8 or 10 species in all, but of these there 

 are but 3 species commonly found in cultivation, namely : 

 E. edulis, E. montana, and E. oleracea. These are 

 found under varying conditions in Central and South 

 America and the West Indies, and all three species are 

 valuable as food-producers to the natives of those coun- 

 tries. E. edulis grows in great quantities in the low- 

 lands of Brazil, where it is known as the Assai Palm, 

 owing to the fact that its seeds are macerated in water, 

 and by this means is produced a beverage known as 

 Assai. E. oleracea is the well-known Cabbage Palm of 

 the West Indies, growing in the lowlands near the 

 coast, while E. montana is the Mountain Cabbage Palm, 

 and is frequently found at considerable altitudes in the 

 same islands, and consequently does not attain the great 

 dimensions of E. oleracea. 



The Euterpes do not present any special cultural dif- 

 ficulties, being free-rooting and rapid-growing palms, 

 a night temperature of 65 F., and abundant moisture, 

 being among their chief requirements. A good, turfy 

 loam, with the addition of about one-fifth of stable ma- 

 nure while in the compost heap, provides a suitable 

 soil. From their habit of forming a tall, slender stem 

 without suckering from the base, the Euterpes are 

 liable to become rather leggy specimens. When under 

 cultivation, and for trade purposes, it is advisable to 

 group 3 or 4 of the young plants together, thus produc- 

 ing a more bushy specimen. White scale is one of the 

 worst pests to which these palms are subject, and soon 

 ruins the foliage unless care is taken. Seeds germi- 

 nate in a few weeks if sown in a warm greenhouse, and 

 the young plants make better progress when moder- 

 ately shaded. w H TAPLIN . 



EUTOCA. Now referred to Phacelia. 



EVAPORATING OF FRUIT. While the domestic 

 operation of drying fruit has been practiced ever since 

 men looked beyond their immediate wants and stored 

 food for time of greater need, and while dried fruit has 

 long been an article of commerce, yet until a few dec- 

 ades ago only the most primitive methods were used in 

 the drying process, and the industry, commercially, was 

 'confined to a few favored regions in Europe. The mod- 

 ern industry is scarcely more than a quarter century 

 old. Its almost inconceivable growth in America in this 

 brief time is one of the industrial phenomena of the 

 epoch. Spurred into activity by the encroachments of 

 the American product in their markets, the European 

 producers, by the adoption of better methods, and by 

 governmental encouragement, have increased greatly 

 their output of dried fruit. And so, from an adjunct to 

 fruit growing for home use, drying fruit has become, 

 within recent years, one of the main branches of horti- 

 culture. 



Fruit may be cured in the sun, or it may be cured in 

 drying machines, called evaporators. That cured in the 

 sun is called by the producer dried fruit ; that in 

 evaporators, evaporated fruit. By far the greater part 

 of the world's product is cured in the sun. 



Sun-drying fwtit.In countries having a sufficiently 

 warm and dry climate, as Greece and Turkey, and parts 

 of France, Spain and western America, fruit is dried 

 almost wholly in the sun. The fact that in these favored 

 localities the drying capacity is limited only by the acre- 

 age of sunshine, makes it certain that the proportion of 

 sun-dried fruit will always be vastly greater than that of 

 evaporated fruit. Drying fruit in the sun* is a simple 

 process, but one hedged in by many little arts and 

 methods which facilitate the work and improve the prod- 

 uct. In general, the process is as follows : the fruit is 

 graded, bleached by sulfur, if a light colored product 

 is desired, in the case of prunes dipped or pricked, and 

 is then spread on trays to be exposed to the sun. When 

 the drying process is finished the fruit is again graded, 

 in most cases put through a sweat, and then "finished" 

 in various ways, as by dipping or glossing. 



Evaporating fruit. There are hosts of styles of 

 evaporators, but all possess in common a chamber for 

 the reception of the fruit, through which a current of 

 warm air is forced, or the fruit is forced through the 

 air, or both, the object being to remove the aqueous 

 matter from the fruit as quickly as possible, and the 

 principle being that w T arm air will absorb more moisture 

 than cool air. The saturated air must not remain in 

 contact with the fruit. Since different fruits exact dif- 

 ferent conditions, one should be able to change the tem- 

 perature and velocity of the air current in the drying 

 chamber at will. To make the product homogeneous, 

 current and temperature must be equal in all parts of 

 the evaporator. It is obvious that simplicity in the ma- 

 chine and economy in heat and in room are cardinal 

 virtues in a good evaporator. It is the rule to start the 

 evaporation of large fruits at a low temperature and 

 finish at a high one, but with berries the reverse is true. 

 Some operators start their apples high and finish at a 

 low temperature. 



The following are definitions of the somewhat tech- 

 nical terms used in the industry: Bleacliiny is the pro- 



