February 7, 1894.J 



Garden and Forest. 



59 



as effectually as heat ; but really complete drying, leaving no 

 moisture at all in the fruit, would yield a product so unlike the 

 original fruit that it would have little value ; and if the drying 

 is not complete, as in the evaporated apple, we must resort to 

 such means as cold storage to carry the fruit through the next 

 warm season. The low temperature itself checks the tendency 

 to decay, for ferments and bacteria do not work well in the 

 cold, and the latter not at all at very low temperatures, but 

 there is a limit at which the fruit is spoiled by the cold itself, 

 and this, therefore, is but an imperfect means of preservation. 

 Finally, there are certain chemical substances, like borax, 

 boracic acid, salicylic acid, sulphurous acid, which act as poi- 

 sons on bacteria ; but as they can be applied to fresh fruits 

 only in such a way that harm would come to those who eat 

 them, their use is out of the question in such cases. 



Therefore it is, that if we want to enjoy all the lusciousness 

 of the ripe fruit, we must usually eat that fruit just when it is 

 ripe ; canned or dried it may be good still, but it is quite 

 another thing ; cold storage may preserve the lusciousness for 

 a while, but not for long. Especially is this true of the berry 

 fruits which have no protecting skin to defend them from the 

 attacks of bacteria and consequent decay. The only way of 

 preserving these tender fruits in a condition at all approach- 

 ing that when they were picked is by canning, so that we are 

 at least reminded of what they were when fresh, as they come 

 upon our tables in winter. This is a perfectly wholesome way 

 of preserving fruit, when honestly done ; and an entirely suc- 

 cessful way, so far as keeping the fruit in an eatable condition 

 for an indefinite length ot time is concerned. But there are 

 temptations not to do it honestly, and the product dishonestly 

 obtained may sometimes deserve severe condemnation. 



The complete success of canning fruit, as to the mere mat- 

 ter of preserving it from molding and decay, requires that 

 the contents of the can shall be heated throughout to a tem- 

 perature at least nearly as high as boiling water ; to do this 

 takes time and care. If a little salicylic acid is added to the 

 contents of the can it will assist the action of heat in killing all 

 germs, and the heating need not be quite so thorough. But 

 such an addition is not honest. The use of salicylic acid in 

 wine has been prohibited in Europe, because, while small 

 quantities added may do no harm, there is no guarantee that 

 it may not be used to excess. It is not harmless when taken 

 into the system. Fruit properly canned without it will keep 

 perfectly ; fruit improperly canned, or poor fruit canned in 

 any way, may keep with its aid, and not without ; and the 

 more careless and slovenly the selection and preparation of 

 the fruit, and the heating and sealing of it, the more freely 

 must the preservative be added, to keep it from decay. 

 Salicylic acid' is widely used in this country in canning vege- 

 tables and tomatoes ; probably it is also used in canning fruits. 



Then we have two kinds of tin-plate — the "bright" and 

 the "terne." The latter contains much more lead than the 

 former. In Germany the law requires that tin-plate used for 

 canning foods shall not contain over one per cent, of lead. In 

 the chemical laboratory of the Department of Agriculture, at 

 Washington, the tin of fifty cans, in which peas had been put 

 up, was examined for lead ; thirty of these were found to contain 

 from one-half up to thirteen per cent, of this poisonous metal. 

 Then, again, solder, rich in lead, is easier to handle than if 

 poor in lead ; in Germany, canners are prohibited from using 

 solder with more than ten per cent, of lead in it. The solder 

 of twenty-four cans, examined in the laboratory above men- 

 tioned, was found to contain from forty-three to sixty-five per 

 cent, of lead. There is no question but that the use of lead, 

 or of materials containing much lead, that are to come in con- 

 tact with articles of food, and especially of acid food, is to be 

 strongly condemned. It is possible that the poorer the quality 

 of the materials coming in contact with alloys rich in lead, the 

 greater the danger of getting some of the lead, and of the tin 

 also, into the contents of the cans. 



In respect to the drying of fruit, we have again a temptation 

 to depart from scrupulous honesty in sulphuring to an exces- 

 sive extent. Dr. Hilgard, Director of the California Experiment 

 Station, does not believe in the bleaching, any way, and calls 

 the handsome, light-colored slices of dried apple " whitened 

 sepulchres." He believes that this sulphuring may be used to 

 cover up dirty and damaged fruit, and that fruit excessively 

 sulphured is less digestible, because it contains so much of 

 this antiseptic ; for all antiseptics, whether borax, salicylic acid 

 or sulphites, are unfavorable to digestion when taken into the 

 stomach, with the food. All fruit when dried in the air darkens, 

 owing to the action of the oxygen of the air upon cer- 

 tain constituents of the fruit ; and he thinks that this color- 

 ation "should be looked for by every consumer as the 

 natural mark of an honest, unmanipulated article." In all 

 this I am inclined to agree with him. At any rate, all 



honest men will agree that only clean and perfect fruit 

 which needs no manipulations to cover up defects should 

 be dried. All will agree that any manipulation which can 

 cover up defects has its dangers, and that an extensive trade 

 in any article may be seriously damaged by dishonest prac- 

 tice ; and that in such cases many honest people suffer for the 

 misdeeds of a very few rascals. Even carelessness may bring 

 about the same result. Fruit dryers became careless in the 

 use of the zinc trays in their evaporators, and zinc got into the 

 dried fruit that went to Germany. It may and it may not be, 

 that the German Government at that time wanted an excuse 

 for putting some obstacle in the way of the importation of so 

 much fruit, and pounced upon this occurrence of zinc in it as 

 a pretext. But at any rate, if the zinc had not been there, the 

 chances are that they would not have been able, on any other 

 pretext, to hurt the trade so much as they did. 



But the public has acquired a perverted taste, and demands the 

 " whited sepulchres " ; so till the public taste can be reformed, 

 business must conform to it. But let this be done honestly, by 

 using only the best material, and only just so much sulphur- 

 ing as is necessary to bleach it to the desired point. Mr. Green, 

 of the Ohio Experiment Station, states that some varieties of ap- 

 ples, such as the Fameuse, need no sulphuring in order to get 

 a white evaporated product, and he would never use sulphur in 

 the evaporator itself ; he would merely expose the fruit to the 

 fumes for a short time, when prepared for the drying — that is, 

 he would use it, not to bleach out a dark color already formed, 

 but to prevent any discoloration. 



Concerning the preservation of fresh fruit, a rather singular 

 method is proposed by Monclar, in a recent volume of the 

 French Journal d' 'Agriculture Pratique. It consists simply 

 in bedding the fruit in lime. He gives the following general 

 statement of the results of his experiments: 



(1) The lime does not in the least attack the skin of the 

 fruit, even after prolonged contact. (2) The fruit does not 

 dry any more in the lime than in the air. (3) No change takes 

 place in the fruit other than such as is the natural conse- 

 quence of its evolution. 



This method was tested on oranges, artichokes, cherries, 

 gooseberries, prunes, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, grapes, 

 apples, pears, sugar-beets, and chestnuts with their shells re- 

 moved. There was certainly no lack of variety in the material 

 used. Not every test was successful. Tomatoes kept well 

 for two weeks, and half of them for nearly five weeks. In 

 another trial, tomatoes picked before fully ripe, in order to 

 save them from an early frost, and put in lime on October 

 22d, were good till January 15th. Pears, of a variety that he 

 had been unable to keep beyond December in any other way, 

 kept well in lime till the middle of April. The most interest- 

 ing results, and it seems to me the most striking, were ob- 

 tained with grapes. Three varieties were packed in lime on 

 September 13th ; the first examination of them was made De- 

 cember 22d, when all were in good condition ; April 15th two 

 bunches of one variety were taken out, one of which was fairly 

 well preserved, the oilier very well ; all of one of the other 

 varieties were in a bad condition and were removed. On May 

 2d the box was emptied, and all of those still remaining were 

 in excellent condition. In another trial made in the preceding 

 year, the last bunch of grapes in the box was taken out July 

 1st, when half of the berries were well preserved and had an 

 exquisite flavor. 



MR. HALE'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. J. H. Hale, of Connecticut, furnished a good many prac- 

 tical suggestions on various subjects connected with horticul- 

 ture. He believes that the tendency to grow cheap products 

 and to slight horticultural work is due to some extent to cheap 

 nursery stock. Men usually give attention to trees in propor- 

 tion to their estimated value, and one which costs a cent is of 

 less account to a planter than another which costs five times 

 as much. Nurserymen ought to charge enough for their stock 

 to pay a reasonable profit and to make their stock better than 

 much which is now sold. Among the lessons which Mr. Hale 

 has learned last year were : (1) that frequent surface cultiva- 

 tion is the best security against the injurious effects of drought 

 and poorly cultivated orchards ; (2) that workingmen, and 

 what are known as the middle classes, rather than the 

 wealthy, are the best patrons of the fruit-grower ; and (3) that 

 fruit should be widely distributed in local markets for the best 

 commercial returns. He condemned ventilated crates for 

 berry-fruits, and says that such fruits always keep longest 

 when picked dry and cool, and then packed in very tight 

 crates. This view was confirmed by the chemists at the meet- 

 ing, who stated that in the process of decay fruit uses oxygen 

 and gives off carbonic acid gas, and if the air, with its oxygen, 

 is excluded the ripening will be checked. This view was also 



