880 FRUIT CULTURE IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 



fire, boil for time, and when tender throw them into fresh fountain or river water 

 in preference to well water (as such contains less calcareous salt and is softer.) 

 Fountain water is preferable for preserving all fruit, especially white fruit. Peel 

 them and take out the cores, cutting them in equal quarters ; put them again in 

 alumed water, and continue whitening them until the head of a pin passes easily 

 through the quarters and the hole closes up again. Quinces are also whitened in the 

 following manner: The fruit is just peeled, and a lemon rubbed over each slice to 

 prevent its becoming red ; then put in alumed or acidulated water, then they are 

 whitened. 



The former process is preferable. They are preserved like apricots, having care to 

 cover them with a white linen cloth at the surface of the water, and to cover each 

 vessel into which they are poured with linen or white paper, to hinder the fruit from 

 reddening. It is necessary to take theseprecautions for all white fruit. When it hap- 

 pens that water reddens in whitening them, it is necessary to change the alumed or 

 acidulated water. 



Lemons. Choose fine lemons well united, turn them, make a hole with a punch at 

 the right of the stem, put them successively in fresh water. Whiten them, empty 

 them like oranges, preserve them, and ice them the same. 



Quarters of lemons. Take fine lemons, well ripened, united, and without spots ; 

 separate the largest part of the white, after having cut them in equal quarters. 

 Whiten these skins like citrons, and preserve them and ice them the same. 



Citrons. Choose fine citrons uniformly ripened. Test them with a piece of glass to 

 raise only the surface of the rind. Make a hole with a punch a little larger than for 

 lemons. Whiten them with much water. When they are half whitened, empty them 

 with a coffee spoon, put them in fresh water, and finish them and whiten them like 

 lemons, and preserve them the same. Citrons in quarters are emptied only when they 

 are whitened. Leave them forty-eight hours in fresh water, changing it two or three 

 times a day to remove the bitterness of the rind. 



Raspberries. Choose fine red raspberries, not too ripe, that you examine carefully. 

 Put them in an earthen dish; about 9 pounds in each: cook with an equal part of 

 sugar aw souffle' ; empty, decanting four or five times during an hour, into a similar 

 dish ; put them on a slow fire, bringing them to a boil again ; put in the cellar until the 

 next day, draining slowly so as not to crush them ; and cook in sugar at 28, covered 

 while boiling. The next day cook them at 30, the third day at 32, afterwards drain 

 them so as to dry and candy them. I need not specify their numerous uses. 



Straivberries. Choose them firm, without being quite ripe, and preserve them the 

 same as raspberries and cherries. 



Oranges. Choose very fine oranges, very firm, and with a thick skin. Turn them, 

 making all sorts of designs, and put them in fresh water. Whiten them, and empty 

 like lemons and citrons. They are preserved and iced the same. 



Oranges in quarters. Choose similar oranges. Mark four separations in the orange 

 without detaching the quarters. Whiten as heretofore shown, and when they are 

 well preserved divide the quarters for the various uses. The skins and peels are pre- 

 served and iced the same, and are used to perfume sweetmeats, etc. 



Plums. Choose fine fresh plums, not too ripe, but commencing to turn yellow. The 

 plums of Metz are superior to all others in France for preserves. They are very trans- 

 parent, and once preserved have a very delicious taste. Prick them to the stone with 

 five or six pins fastened in a cork. Put them in a proportional quantity of fresh 

 water lightly alnmed. Let me here refer to a former statement about using water 

 more than once in whitening plums. Care must be taken to put the fruit only in 

 lukewarm water to commence to whiten it, and to leave it in some minutes before 

 increasing the heat. The plums are whitened and preserved the same as apricots. 



I' tars. Choose fine pears, like the butter pears of England or Rheims or Bergamots, 

 and when not too ripe, when the pips are black, and when in paring them they are 

 white under the skin. Put them, with a good deal of water, on a quick fire, or with 



