Edible Products. < 



These grow rapidly and ratoon well 

 when cut. Once established, they 

 would bear being cut over every two or 

 three years, while native trees that 

 have been cut down are not ready for 

 cutting again for at least ten years. 



The fuel question is an important one 

 in the manufacture of concentrated juice, 

 and even if citrate of lime supersedes it, 

 the fuel question will remain. To make 

 citrate of lime, and to dry it, will require 

 as much, probably more, fuel than the 

 present system of concentrating juice. 



LIME PRODUCTS. 

 Fruits : Green Limes. 

 The early shipments of green limes 

 from Dominica were made during 1891, 

 when 99 barrels of fruit were shipped. 

 From this small beginning, the pro-sent 

 considerable business in green limes 

 with New York and London has been 

 developed. The export of this fruit 

 during 1907 was 18,311 barrels, valued at 

 £6,409. 



The American market demands a 

 small fruit packed in well ventilated 

 barrels, and tne Loudon market a large 

 fruit packed in small crates of a capa- 

 city of one cubic foot. A barrel holds 

 from 1,400 to 1,600 fruits varying accord- 

 ing to the size of the limes, and a crate 

 from 200 to 240. 



Green limes are picked from the trees, 

 and are allowed to quail for several days 

 before they are packed. The lime, how- 

 ever, does not apparently require the 

 same degree of quailing as the orange 

 does to ensure its arrival on the market 

 in good order. Each fruit must be wrap- 

 ped in paper, and should be very care- 

 fully packed. Very great care is re- 

 quired in gathering, handling, wrapping, 

 and packing, to ensure the best results. 



The lime is used for the same purposes 

 as the lemon. It is certainly displacing 

 the lemon, to a considerable extent, in 

 the United States. 



Pickled Limes, 



In Dominica a small business is done 

 in shipping limes pickled in sea water. 



These limes go chiefly to Boston. The 

 trade is only a small one, and during late 

 years the export of pickled limes has 

 fallen off somewhat. This is probably 

 not due to a decreasing demand for 

 pickled limes, but rather to increasing 

 shipments of this product from other 

 West India Islands. The average annual 

 export of pickled limes from Dominica 

 for the five-year period ending 1896, was 

 1,505 casks, for a similar period ending 

 1901, 1.117 casks, and for five years 

 ending 1906, 1,000 casks. A cask holds 

 about 2,000 limes. 



' [January, 1909. 



For pickling, the finest specimens of 

 sound yellow limes are selected and 

 placed in vats into which sea-water is 

 pumped. 



In two or three days, this water is run 

 off and fresh sea-water pumped in. This 

 process is repeated several times until 

 the limes are cured. The fruit is then 

 placed in casks which are in turn filled 

 with sea-water to which a small amount 

 of salt has been added. The casks are 

 then closed, and are ready for export 



Raw Lime Juice. 

 Lime juice intended for making cor- 

 dials and for flavouring confections 

 requires very careful preparation. 



The limes should be washed before 

 being crushed in mills fitted with granite 

 rollers. Only the first juice obtained 

 by lightly crushing the fruit through 

 the first rollers is used. The second 

 juice and the press juice which are 

 weaker in acid are used for concentra- 

 ting. 



The first mill juice is carefully strained 

 and placed into puncheons when quite 

 fresh. Formerly it was run into vats, 

 and after settling the clear juice was 

 placed in puncheons or hogsheads for 

 export. 



It is wellknown that raw juice care- 

 fully strained and placed in packages 

 when quite fresh will keep in good con- 

 dition for a considerable time, but if lime 

 juice is exposed to the air it will gra- 

 dually lose its acidity. 



The raw juice trade is in the hands of 

 two or three firms and probably dif- 

 ferent methods are employed in each 

 case. 



Concentrated Lime Juice. 

 Limes are grown chiefly for the pro- 

 duction of citric acid only a small pro- 

 portion of the total crop being used for 

 lime juice cordials and for the green 

 lime trade. In the West Indies the juice 

 is concentrated in order to reduce bulk 

 before shipment to the citric acid 

 makers. 



It is usual to reduce by boiling 600 gal- 

 lons of lime juice to 50 gallons of the 

 concentrated product. Some estates, 

 however, concentrate 10 to 1, others at 

 9 to 1, instead of 12 to 1. Even with low 

 concentration there is a considerable 

 loss of acid. When concentration is 

 carried on to 130 and 140 oz. to the gallon, 

 the loss of acid is very great. 



Planters can now test their own lime 

 juice in the bui lug house and thereby 

 save a considerable destruction of citric 

 acid during concentration, by means of 



