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The Horticulturist s Rule- Book. 



Crystallized or Glace Fruit. — The principle is to extract the juice 

 from the fruit and replace it with sugar syrup, which 

 hardens and preserves the fruit in its natural shape. The 

 fruit should be all of one size and of a uniform degree of 

 ripeness, such as is best for canning. Peaches, pears and 

 similar fruits are parW and cut in halves ; plums, cherries, 

 etc., are pitted. After being properly prepared, the fruit is 

 put in a basket or bucket with a perforated bottom and 

 immersed in boiling water to dilute and extract the juice. 

 This is the most important part of the process, and requires 

 great skill. If the fruit be left too long, it is over-cooked 

 and becomes soft ; if not long enough, the juice is not suffi- 

 ciently extracted, and this prevents perfect absorption of 

 the sugar. After the fruit cools, it may again be assorted 

 as to softness. The syrup is made of white sugar and water. 

 The softer the fruit, the heavier the syrup required. The 

 fruit is placed in earthen pans, covered with syrup and 

 left about a week. This is a critical stage, as fermentation 

 will soon take place, and when this has reached a certain 

 stage the fruit and syrup are heated to the boiling point, 

 which checks the fermentation. This is repeated, as often 

 as may be necessary, for about six weeks. The fruit is 

 taken out of the syrup, washed in clean water, and either 

 glaced or crystallized, as desired. It is dipped in thick 

 syrup, and hardened quickly in the open air for glacing. or 

 left to be hardened slowly if to be crystallized. The fruit is 

 now ready for packing, and will keep in any climate. 



Preserving Fruits for Exhibition. — Several methods are employed. 

 Perhaps the best is to place the fruits in corrosive sublimate 

 — which is a violent poison — prepared at the rate of half an 

 ounce to a gallon of water. Renew the liquid every year or 

 two. Distilled or other very pure water should be used if it 

 is desired to retain the color of the fruit. 



Sulphur is sometimes used as follows : Put 30 gallons of 

 water in a 40-gallon barrel ; float on top of the water a tin 

 pan, in which put a little sulphur. Set the sulphur on fire 

 and cover tightly until the fire goes out ; renew the sulphur 

 several times, opening the barrel for renewal of air between 

 the doses. This fluid is then used as a preservative. 



