50 BULLETIN 1141, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



CHERRIES. 



Cherries occupy very much the same place as pears, so far as com- 

 mercial drying in humid regions is concerned, and they are hardly 

 more important in those regions where sun drying prevails. How- 

 ever, both sweet and sour cherries are dried by artificial heat as well 

 as in the sun to a limited extent. 



The fruit may be pitted or not before drying, but the best product 

 is made when pitting precedes drying, though of course large quanti- 

 ties of juice are lost in the operation unless some provision is made 

 for saving and utilizing it in some way. Xo bleaching is necessary. 

 In other respects they may be handled much as raspberries are han- 

 dled. The evaporation of this fruit is discussed on a later page (see 

 p. 54). 



PRUNES. 



The question " What is a prune ? " is frequently asked. The answer 

 is simple. A prune is merely a plum having certain varietal quali- 

 ties not possessed by other plums. The final, distinguishing quality 

 or character is ability to dry without fermenting while the pit still 

 remains in the fruit. If a plum can not be dried without ferment- 

 ing unless the pit is removed (as is true of most varieties) it is not 

 a prune. Therefore it may be said that all prunes are plums, but not 

 all plums are prunes. As a matter of fact, all of the prunes of com- 

 mercial importance belong to the domestica or European group of 

 plums. Xone of the native or Japanese varieties are dried for market 

 purposes, though there are certain native plums which are used 

 locally in this way to a limited extent. 



The commercial drying of prunes in this country is carried on in 

 Oregon and California, and to some extent in certain localities in 

 Washington and Idaho. The quantity dried in other States is so 

 small as to be negligible. In Oregon. Washington, and Idaho the 

 drying is done in evaporators, while in California sun drying is 

 largely practiced, though evaporators are rapidly coming into gen- 

 eral use. 



Most of the dried prunes offered to the trade consist of two varie- 

 ties — the Italian, grown largely in Oregon and Washington, and the 

 Agen, or. as it is much more commonly called, the French or Petite. 

 grown in California. A few other varieties are dried in small quan- 

 tities, but they are unimportant as compared with the ones named. 



Prunes for drying, like other fruits, should be fully ripe. The 

 common practice' is to permit them to remain on the trees until they 

 drop of their own accord or fall with a very light tapping of the 

 branches with poles. The fruit is then gathered from the ground 

 and placed in lug boxes or other convenient receptacles and taken to 

 the evaporator. Sometimes the fruit that drops naturally is picked 

 up at three or four different times, and then poles are used to com- 

 plete the harvest. Since the sugar content of prunes increases rap- 

 idly in the last week or 10 days prior to their fall from the tree, 

 to allow them to ripen and fall of their own accord obviously gives 

 a higher yield of better quality product than is obtained when they 

 are shaken from the trees. -For this reason, and also because ripe 

 fruit checks very much more readily than immature fruit, the prunes 

 which have fallen of their own accord should be kept separate from 

 the less mature fruit. 



