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CA JVA DIA N II OR TIC UL TURIST. 



The Ostheim we first sent out for trial 

 was the Ostheim of Minnesota, intro- 

 duced from Germany. This we soon 

 found was not identical with the 

 Ostheim of Kansas and Missouri, and 

 still later we found that neither of the 

 above was identical svith the Cerise de 

 Ostheim we imported from Poland and 

 Xorth Silesia. 



The ]y[innesota variety we have 

 found to mature its fruit very late, 



and to be smaller than Early 

 Richmond. 



The Kansas and Missouri variety is 

 earlier, larger and better in fruit ; but 

 the tree is not hardier than Montmor- 

 ency Ordinaire. The Cerise de Ostheim 

 of Poland we find hardy in tree, round- 

 topped and even drooping in habit, 

 early in coming into bearing, and fully 

 equal to the Missouri variety in earli- 

 ness, size and quality of the fruit. 



FRUIT EVAPORATING. 



Points from an Expert. 



Fruit evaporating is a business 

 requiring careful study and experience 

 to be successful, as I have found after 

 a number of years of faithful study. 

 Our grafted varieties of apples yield 

 from six to eight pounds of the evap- 

 orated fruit to each bushel of fifty 

 pounds of green apples, according to 

 the care and management the fruit gets 

 during its preparation and drying. 

 The best paring machines are none too 

 good, and until 1886 there was not a 

 worthy one to be had. But now several 

 very practical machines are in use. I 

 prefer machines that pare, core and 

 slice at the same time, though I used 

 to think a separate slicer necessary to 

 get the greatest production. But I can 

 now get eight pounds to the bushel by 

 the use of the combined Taylor machine. 

 Two gii-ls with this machine can pre- 

 pare thirty bushels of apples in ten 

 hours, and they work for sixty cents 

 per day each. To save fruit, paring 

 machines must have the best of care. 

 The knife guards, knives and coring 

 tubes should always be ready for ex- 

 change, and a machine without inter- 

 changeable parts is practically worth- 

 less. 



A popular sentiment is rising against 

 the use of so much sulphur in bleaching 

 fruit. I am glad to see it, but bleach- 

 ing of some kind will be followed for 



some time yet. Apples and peaches 

 should be introduced to the bleach as 

 soon as pared, as after that a good color 

 cannot be had, as they turn red by 

 delay. A good way to preserve the 

 fruit for the bleacher is to run it, as 

 soon as pared, into a vat filled with 

 water made brackish with salt, being 

 careful not to add too much salt, as 

 then the fruit, when dried, would 

 gather moisture and damage its mar- 

 keting quality. 



Spread the fruit for di-ying on trays 

 made of No. 5 galvanized wire cloth. 

 I prefer steam heat for drying, because 

 by it much more work can be done by 

 one tire than by the furnace system, 

 and insurance rates are lower. Care 

 must be taken not to leave the fruit 

 in the evaporator so long as to turn it 

 brown. I take out the fruit rather 

 early and spread it about ten inches 

 deep on a curing floor, where it lies for 

 ten days or two weeks, and is shoveled 

 over once or twice before packing. In 

 this way one can take fruit from the 

 dryer while it is still quite damp, sav- 

 ing fuel and increasing the working 

 capacity of the machine. We also ger 

 a more marketable quality of fruit, fot 

 the color will be better. But I am not 

 advising packing fruit before it is thor- 

 oughly dried, which is bound to cause 

 shrinkage ; and so much of this has 

 been done (especially on bleached fruit, 



