326 



FIGS 



are picked when quite ripe, and when they commence to shrivel 

 the stalk should be left 011 them. They do not dry very evenly, 

 and after exposure to the sun for six to ten days, during which 

 they are turned once, the dry ones are removed, and those not 

 yet ready, allowed to remain a little longer. 



Black figs are not sulphured, whereas white ones are improved 

 in colour by bleaching. If too syrupy inside, and when the juice 

 oozes at the eye, as occurs with some varieties, the eye is slightly 

 raised for a day or two until the juice thickens. Figs should not 

 be dried too hard. After coming out of the sweating boxes, after 

 10 to 12 days and before packing, they are softened by dipping into 

 boiling brine or hot syrup. When sufficiently dry, those which 

 open on the top of the boxes are drawn between the fingers and 

 flattened. Pressure is applied to keep out insects and prevent the 

 fruit drying excessively. Three to four Ibs. of ripe figs yield one of -dry. 



DRYING VEGETABLES. 



If fruit drying is, under the influence of West Australian 

 autumnal climate, susceptible of being profitably carried out in the 

 sun, the use of evaporators utilising direct fire heat should in many 

 instances prove of great value to the market gardener. Tons of 

 vegetables at periods of* glut are hardly worth picking, packing, and 

 forwarding long distances from the gardens in moister coastal 

 districts to the distant inland, arid centres of population. In many 

 parts of the Eastern Goldfields fresh vegetables are never seen, and 

 an important field is yet open to our enterprising vegetable growers 

 in catering for those centres, and supplying them with vegetables 

 differing from the fresh article by being simply deprived of its 

 watery portions, which amounts, according to kinds, from three- 

 fourths to nine-tenths of the weight of the vegetables. 



In the first instance, vegetables thus treated would not be 

 wasted, and represent to the grower a loss of so much invested 

 capital. They could be treated at any time of the year. The cost 

 of evaporating should be handsomely recouped by the very material 

 reduction in carting in railway freight ; a perishable article subject 

 to quick decay could be kept almost indefinitely, and be sent over 

 long journeys, when it could be used in small quantities at a time, 

 and as required, and preserve unimpaired to the very last its taste 

 and its succulent and refreshing properties. When required for use 

 it should only be washed, then soaked for 12 to 24 hours in four to 

 six times it weight of water, and then cooked as desired. 



Of evaporators a great many patterns are made ; some 

 horizontal, others upright. The charge is fed from underneath and 

 the finished trays removed from the top. 



The illustration shows one of the numerous designs of fruit 

 and vegetable evaporators. The principle which underlies their con- 



