CRYSTALLIZATION OF FRUIT IN FRANCE. 



[Republished from Consular Reports No. 60.J 



MARSEILLES. 



REPORT OF CONSUL MASON. 



The business of preserving fruits by the crystallizing process is 

 peculiar to Southeastern France, and is practiced on a large scale at 

 Apt, in the department of Vaucluse, at Clermont, in Auvergne, as well 

 as at Marseilles, Grasse, Avignon, and other places of less importance. 



The product is exported largely to England, the United States, and 

 various other countries, including Algiers, the East and West Indies, 

 and even South America, where the profusion of fresh fruits would 

 seem, at first thought, to render such an expensive import almost 

 superfluous. 



The kinds of fruit preserved by this process are mainly pears, cher- 

 ries, apricots, pine-apples, plums, figs, citrons, oranges, melons, and a 

 kind of dwarf orange called "chinois," which grows to some extent in 

 the district of Nice, but is imported here mainly from Italy and Cor- 

 sica. Peaches are used for this purpose only to a limited extent in the 

 region of Marseilles, the " free-stone" varieties being too costly and the 

 supply too small for profitable use on a large scale. 



The crystallizing process is in principle simple and nearly uniform 

 for all the above kinds of fruit, but it requires a certain skill and deli- 

 cacy of manipulation which can only be obtained by experience, and 

 which it is difficult to precisely define. 



The essential thing to be done is to extract the juice of the fruit and 

 replace it in the pulp withliquid sugar, which, upon hardening, not only 

 preserves the fruit from fermentation and decay, but retains it in its 

 original form and consistency. For this purpose it is necessary that the 

 fruit should be fresh, clear of all decay or other blemish, and of precisely 

 the correct degree of ripeness. This last is an important and difficult 

 requirement, as the proper degree of ripeness for crystallizing varies 

 with the different varieties, and is so precise as to exclude from use for 

 this purpose much of the fruit sold during the season in open market, 

 and which has not been gathered, assorted, and transported with suffi- 

 cient care. 



156A 31 871 



