134 



FLORIDA FRUITS. 



The hogshead is stood on end and a door sawed out of the 

 side to admit the stove, a hole eighteen inches square is then 

 made in the top of the hogshead to allow the heat from the stove 

 to pass up into the box, which is stood upright over the hole, 

 the lower end being knocked out, and is carefully fitted down on 

 the hogshead, so that none of the ascending heat shall escape. 



A hole, surrounded by tin, is made in the side of the hogs- 

 head opposite the stove, through which to pass the stove-pipe, 

 so that none of the smoke can ascend into the box. 



That winch would be the lid of the box, if it were on the 

 ground, is fitted on hinges, so as to open like a door, thus giving 

 easy access to the interior, which is fitted with open sliding 

 shelves, resting on cleats, about three inches apart, one above 

 the other. These shelves should be of wood, with numerous 

 small holes perforated in them ; or, better still, of stout galvan- 

 ized wire netting. 



Place the fruit to be dried, cut in strips, on these shelves, 

 close the door, which must fit as tightly as possible, keep up a 

 gentle fire in the stove, and in ten or twelve hours you will have 

 as sweet a dried fruit as you ever tasted, and the cheapest, too, 

 by far. 



Guavas preserved in this way can be preserved for home- 

 use all through the non-bearing season, or shipped to jelly and 

 marmalade factories without risk, and at a much less expense as 

 regards freight, than if the ripe fruit, were shipped in its natu- 

 ral state. 



Guavas, if well cultivated and moderately fertilized, bear 

 fruit in eighteen months from the seed; they are also easily 

 sorted from layers or slips. 



The guava is less a tree than a broad, straggling bush, 

 although sometimes trimmed up into tree-shape, and in the 

 more southern parts of Florida it grows so large that it becomes 

 a veritable tree, with branches stout enough to support a person 

 climbing among them. 



Over considerably more than half the State, however, the 

 " common guava" attains the height and shape of a large bush 

 only, from twelve to fifteen feet high, because, unless carefully 



