CRYSTALLIZATION OF FRUIT IN FRANCE. 875 



8 cents per pound. The labor of women to pare, stone, and otherwise 

 prepare the fruit costs 50 cents per day ; that of men sufficiently skilled 

 in the processes of scalding and preserving to work under the direction 

 of a foreman, commands from 80 cents to $1 per day. In most estab- 

 lishments the proprietor or a member of the firm is the superintendent, 

 who personally directs the work. 



Most leading confectioners and caterers of Marseilles manufacture 

 their own crystallized and " glace*" fruits, which they sell at retail from 

 50 to 75 cents per pound. 



The wholesale trade prices of quantities for export are much less, as 

 will be shown by the following exhibit of the average values, as declared 

 for export to the United States and other countries, of the several 

 fruits during the season -of 1884, which was a year of abundant fruit 

 harvest, and the present summer and autumn, when all fresh fruits, 

 except cherries and figs, have been more expensive by reason of a short 

 and interior supply : 



This would give an average of about 24 cents per pound for 1884, and 

 26 cents for 1885. 



Deduct from these values, say, 20 per cent, for manufacturer's profit, 

 and we reach from 19 to 20 cents per pound as the average cost of pro- 

 duction. 



Add to these values the cost of importation and a duty of 35 per cent, 

 ad valorem, and the crystallized fruits of Provence become a rather ex- 

 pensive sweetmeat to American consumers. 



THE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. 



But there would seem to be no good reason why this dainty and profit- 

 able industry could not be established with immediate and complete 

 success in the United States, where most ordinary fruits grow in pro- 

 fuse abundance and with finer flavor than is developed by the same 

 varieties in any part of Europe. Sugar is equally cheap, and fuel fa? 

 less expensive in our country than it is here. From the foregoing ac 



