PURE AND IMPURE FOODS. 



4?S 



London market is about 10 pence (20 

 cents) a gallon and of concentrated juice 

 about $56 a pipe. The production of essen- 

 tial oil of limes forms an important branch 

 of the industry. The oil is obtained from 

 the rind of the ripe fruit and is exported 

 cither as hand pressed, or rind, oil or as 

 distilled oil. In the preparation of the 

 former, the oil is extracted by the ecuclle 

 process before the fruit is passed through 

 the mill. Distilled oil is recovered from 

 the juice, after milling, by the ordinary 

 process of distillation. The yield of rind, 

 or hand pressed, oil, averages about 3 

 ounces a barrel of fresh limes, and it is 

 worth in London at present prices about 

 97 cents a pound. Distilled oil is produced 

 at the rate of 2 x / 2 gallons for each hogshead 

 of concentrated juice and is worth in Lon- 

 don about 43 cents a pound. 



"At Montserrat, lime cultivation has 

 formed, for many years, one of the chief 

 agricultural industries. The yield of limes 

 when the trees are in full bearing is at the 

 rate of 160 barrels an acre. The yield of 

 juice is calculated at 8 gallons for each bar- 

 rel of limes. The cultivation of limes at 

 Jamaica, Trinidad and Antigua is carried 

 on to a limited extent, the value of lime 

 juice exported from these islands during 

 the year 1900 being $36,479, $1,927, and 

 $949, respectively. In the other islands the 

 lime tree, although well known and found 

 in nearly every garden, is grown to meet 

 local requirements only." 



CHRISTMAS PLUM PUDDING. 



Without doubt plum porridge was the 

 original form of plum pudding. It was 

 made by boiling beef or mutton, and thick- 

 ening the broth with brown bread. To the 

 half cooked meat, fruit and spices were 

 added and the dish was served as the first 

 course of the Christmas dinner. 



Plum pudding, proper, a recent writer 

 states, does not appear in cookery books 

 before 1675, an d was not prominent as a 

 Christmas dish before the Georgian days. 

 At the early Saxon feasts, mince pies were 

 served and have always been associated with 

 Christmas festivities. The crust enclosing 

 them was supposed to represent the manger 

 in which the Holy Child was laid. The 

 Puritans objected to these dishes because 

 they savored of superstition. 



An English authority makes the follow- 

 ing calculation as to the quantity of plum 

 pudding consumed in Great Britain annu- 

 ally. The country has a population not far 

 from 40,000,000, and probably at least 4,000,- 

 000 puddings are prepared for Christinas 

 day. A vast number of these puddings are 

 sent to Australia, India, and other colonies, 

 and many families prepare a number of 

 puddings at that time to be used later. 



These puddings would average rather 



more than 4 pounds each in weight, making 

 a total of nearly 8,000 tons. This quantity 

 would require 2,600 tons of raisins, nearly 

 1,000 tons of currants, and an equal quan- 

 tity of mixed peel, as well as about 30,000,- 

 000 eggs, to hold the fruit, suet and bread 

 crumbs together. 



At Aughton-in-Halton, near Lancaster, a 

 flourishing firm of weavers, a little more 

 than a century ago, erected an immense ob- 

 long boiler for the purposes of their trade, 

 and when first set up it was inaugurated 

 by the boiling in it of a huge plum pudding 

 of about a ton in weight. 



What was probably the largest plum pud- 

 ding weighed a ton and a half. It was 

 made at Christmas time, in 1858, to cele- 

 brate the opening of the railway to Paign- 

 ton. It contained 573 pounds of flour, 191 

 pounds of bread, 382 pounds of suet, 191 

 pounds of currants, 382 pounds of raisins, 

 320 lemons, 144 nutmegs, 95 pounds of 

 sugar, and 360 quarts of milk, besides a 

 large number of eggs. It was cooked in 

 sections and afterwards built together. 



Plum pudding is commonly considered 

 indigestible, but most persons would 

 probably be unwilling to omit it from the 

 Christmas menu on that account. 



ARSENIC IN FOOD. 



The large quantity of arsenic found a 

 year or so ago in English beer, which 

 caused such disastrous results in Manches- 

 ter, England, has led to investigations to 

 determine whether arsenic is present, acci- 

 dentally or otherwise, not only in beer, but 

 in many other articles. In the case of the 

 English beer, the presence of arsenic was 

 traced to commercial glucose used in beer 

 making, much of the sulphuric acid which 

 entered into the manufacture of the glucose 

 having been made from Swedish pyrites 

 having an abnormally high arsenic content. 



Prof. Albert E. Leach, of the Massachu- 

 setts State Board of Health, is authority 

 for the following "statement : "It is well 

 known that arsenic is commonly present in 

 commercial sulphuric acid, and would also 

 naturally occur in any food product into 

 the manufacture of which sulphuric acid 

 had entered. For this reason, various food 

 products have been examined in this labor- 

 atory for arsenic, and a number of samples 

 of commercial glucose have been found to 

 contain it, but to a slight extent only. 

 Arsenic in small traces has also been found 

 and would naturally be expected in food 

 compounds wherein commercial glucose 

 was an ingredient, such, for example, as 

 honey, molasses and maple syrup of the 

 compound or adulterated variety, as well 

 as confectionery." 



Traces of arsenic were also found in 

 some other food materials, but not enough 

 to be an element of danger. 



