Edible Products. 238 [April 1907. 



to immerse in water, after their removal from the formalin mixture, apples that are 

 intended for storing. Plums, strawberries, and other soft fruits should be placed in 

 a sieve or some such firm, open structure for immersion in the solution. 



The strength of the formalin solution does not deteriorate by use, so that the 

 process of sterilizing batch after batch of fruit can be continued until the solution 

 is practically used up in the process. 



For Tropical Fruits. 



However valuable the method of fruit preservation described here be in 

 extending the duration of ripe fruit in good condition at home, the greatest benefit, 

 as stated in a previous report on the subject, will be in connection with imported 

 fruit. Many kinds of tropical fruit that, owing to their rapid deterioration and 

 decay, never reach our shores, could be introduced if treated in this manner before 

 shipment. The fact that many tropical fruits decay very quickly in their native 

 country is in reality no argument against the suggestion. It only indicates that in 

 their native countries, as in this and every other land, the surface of every ripe fruit 

 is loaded with the spores of fungi, wild yeasts, &c, which attack the tissues and set 

 up a fermentation that is of ten mistaken for the normal decay due to over-ripeness. 

 As an example, the state of semi-decay in which bunches of bananas so freqnently 

 reach us as in most instances entirely due to the attacks of various superficial 

 organisms capable of inducing fermentation. This could be prevented by the 

 adoption at the port of shipment of the treatment recommended above.— Journal of 

 the Board of Agriculture, Vol. XIII., No. 9. 



