560 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



METHODS OF FRUIT PRESERVING. 

 By Thos. E. Sedgwick, Assistant Secretary. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 560 



Bibliography 561 



Attention to Details . . . 562 



Government Fruit Schools . . 562 



Preparing the Fruit . . . 563 



Drying or Evaporating . . . 564 



Marmalade, Must, and Mark . . 574 



Fruit Paste 

 Bottling Fruits 

 Methods of Fastening Tins 

 The Vacuum Process 

 Conclusions 

 Appendix. — Various Notes on Fruit 

 Preserving . . 



576 

 578 

 578 

 579 

 583 



584 



Introduction. 



It is a curious fact that although the English varieties of fruit and 

 vegetables are equal, if not superior, to those of our neighbours on the 

 Continent and in the Colonies, we fail signally to produce sufficient for 

 our home consumption, even in years of heavy crops like the season 

 of 1904. This is doubtless largely due to the general systems of tenure, 

 which by no means encourage either landlord or tenant to plant trees, the 

 full benefits of which are not realisable for years. It is also due in some 

 measure to the absence of co-operation among producers, such as exists 

 abroad, and is now being rapidly advanced in Ireland under Sir Horace 

 Plunkett, and to this latter cause the smallness of consignments and the 

 consequent relatively high railway rates are largely attributable. We in 

 England appear to be waiting to see who shall move first ; no company 

 wishes to erect a factory until certain of having sufficient fruit and 

 vegetables to treat, and the farmers and growers are not ready to alter 

 their cropping and start fresh planting until they feel sure of being able 

 to dispose of the produce. But this does not explain the large quantity of 

 foreign-preserved fruit consumed in this country, even in years in which 

 our own fruit crop has resulted in a glut and been in some places almost 

 unsaleable. The Council of the Society, having this in mind, instructed 

 the writer to proceed to Germany to study the methods of fruit preserving 

 there, and to see where in England we failed and how far the German 

 methods might be applicable to English conditions. 



By the preservation of fruit and vegetables are understood various 

 means for carrying over in a durable form the surplus of one season or 

 one year for use in another, when the fruits and vegetables in question 

 cannot be obtained — at all events in sufficient quantity — in a fresh state. 

 These methods are very numerous, and their application has reached 

 enormous dimensions of late years, and what was formerly regarded as 

 the hobby of the house-proud matron or the business of the farmer's wife 

 has become an industry employing thousands of hands, and in which 

 several millions of capital are embarked. 



Our German, American, and other competitors having shown us what 

 can be produced, it is no longer possible to find a market for second or 



