CHAPTER XXIY, 



CURING AND PRESERVING THE FRUIT. 



Smyrna and Calimyrna figs are dried in the open 

 air and packed artistically according to the taste of 

 individual distributers. The Adriatic is sometimes 

 dried, but more often preserved and pickled. Such 

 dooryard varieties as Celeste. Mission, Brown Tur- 

 key and Ischia are made into marmalades, while 

 the Magnolia is always preserved, its quality and 

 the climates where raised not admitting of sun dry- 

 ing, nor does it compete successfully with Smyrnas 

 when evaporated. As a preserve it probably has no 

 equal in appearance, and its quality is fair. 



The Magnolia fig is often cooked skin and all; 

 sometimes it is softened by vigorous boiling a few 

 minutes in plain water, but the skin is usually re- 

 moved by soaking the fruit in dilute potassium hy- 

 drate, boiling hot, afterwards rinsing the caustic 

 solution out by repeated immersions in clear water. 

 It is cooked in pure syrup made from sugar graded 

 higher than granulated, the "Confectioner's A" 

 and "Pebble A" brands, giving best results. This 

 syrup should test by saccharometer from 28 to 32 

 degrees at the boiling point when the fruit is cooked 

 • lone. A saccharometer is a syrup gauge used by all 

 confectioners and preservers to measure density, 

 and is the only satisfactory instrument by which 



