1044 
age of fruits is very important com- 
mercially as well as from the housekeep- 
er’s standpoint. For instance, in cider 
making it is desirable that the fruit 
should be used when the sugar content is 
high, as the quality of cider and vine- 
gar is largely determined by the amount 
of sugar present. As every housewife 
knows, underripe fruit—that is, fruit 
which still contains the so-called pectin 
bodies rather than the sugars and other 
carbohydrates characteristic of fully rip- 
ened fruit—is the most satisfactory for 
jelly making. In the case of bananas the 
underripe fruit, rich in starch, is best for 
cooking, and the very ripe fruit, in which 
the starch has been changed into sugar, 
for use uncooked. It is not unlikely that 
failure to recognize this distinction is re- 
Sponsible for the digestive disturbance 
which many persons experience when 
bananas are eaten, as the raw, underripe, 
starchy fruits are generally conceded to 
be difficult of digestion. The underripe 
bananas, when dried, sliced, and ground, 
yield a flour or meal rich in starch, while 
the riper fruit with the higher sugar con- 
tent, sliced and dried, is very sweet and 
not unlike figs in flavor and composition. 
Ways of Serving Fruit 
As regards the way in which they are 
served fruits range from the muskmelon, 
watermelon, and avocado, almost never 
cooked, to cranberries and the ordinary 
varieties of quince, which are not eaten 
raw. The methods of preparation are 
quite varied, including drying or evapor- 
ating, and baking, boiling, and stewing, 
while quantities of fruit are used in pud- 
dings, pies, and other dishes, and for 
the preparation of jams, jellies, and pre- 
serves. Fruit juices are used for bever- 
ages, and both fruits and the juices are 
very commonly prepared for the table 
by freezing fruit ices being considered 
as among the most appetizing desserts. 
Some fruits, notably the green and the 
ripe olive and less generally the lime, are 
prepared for the table by pickling in 
brine. 
Even a casual examination of cookery 
books and the periodical literature de- 
voted to such topics shows that the ways 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
in which fruits and fruit products can 
be cooked and served are practically end- 
less. The housewife who desires to vary 
her menu by the use of more fruit and 
fruit dishes can do so very readily by 
consulting such sources of information. 
The temperature at which fresh fruits 
are eaten is largely a matter of fashion or 
individual taste. With the increased use 
of ice in our homes during recent years 
it has become a very common custom to 
serve fruits colder than was formerly 
the case. Cool or even cold fruits are 
very refreshing and many prefer them 
served thus. There are others, however, 
who maintain that overchilling lessens 
the delicate flavor and accentuates the 
acid taste. They insist that the fruits 
gathered in the cool of the day and stored 
in a cool but not a cold place are at their 
best. Still others find them sweetest and 
most palatable when brought from the 
garden warmed by the sun. 
Place of Fruit in the Diet 
In most families fruits are commonly 
thought of as a food accessory, and are 
prized for their pleasant flavor or for sup- 
posed hygienic reasons rather than for 
their food value; yet a study of avail- 
able figures shows that they constitute 
a by no means unimportant part of the 
diet, since they supply, on the basis of 
recent statistics, 4.4 per cent of the total 
food and 3.7 per cent of the total carbo- 
hydrates of the average American diet. 
With a view to learning something more 
definite regarding the possibilities of 
fruits as sources of nutrients, the rela- 
tive cost of nutrients supplied by fruits 
and other foods, the digestibility of a 
fruit diet as compared with an ordinary 
mixed diet, and related questions, ex- 
tended investigations were undertaken at 
the California Agricultural Experiment 
Station by Prof. M. E. Jaffa, the work as 
a whole being carried on in co-operation 
with the nutrition investigations of the 
Office of Experiment Stations. In the 
first series reported six dietary studies 
were made with fruitarians—two women 
and four children who had lived on a 
fruit and nut diet for several years. The 
dietary studies covered from 20 to 28 
