METHODS OF FRUIT PRESERVING 



561 



third grade preserved fruits. To make good preserves, good fruits must 

 be used. It is of no use commercially to dry or bottle fruit which is other- 

 wise unsaleable. Much attention is paid abroad to the appearance of the 

 article when exposed for sale ; the labels, lids, and general appearance are 

 made as attractive as possible ; and when with this a uniform high quality 

 of the fruit is always found in certain brands, the only difficulty that is 

 experienced is the producing of a sufficient quantity to meet the demand. 

 When all our home fruit preservers have realised that everything depends 

 on appearance, flavour, and uniformity, we may hope that our foreign 

 bills for preserves will dwindle out of sight. There are already several 

 excellent large firms of fruit preservers in this country, who, having 

 already realised these three essentials, are now reaping the reward of their 

 foresight. Many small growers may say that this is impossible with 

 them, and as the day of English co-operative factories is still some way 

 off, they may not be able to secure the custom of large towns. But these 

 people could easily preserve sufficient fruit and vegetables for home con- 

 sumption at an extremely low cost, and could generally have a surplus 

 which* they could sell through the local grocer or in a neighbouring 

 market town. In short, the tastes of the nation are being moulded by 

 foreign imports, and it remains for the English grower to take advantage 

 of this and secure the market for home-preserved fruit. 



Bibliography. 



It is remarkable that, despite its importance, there is no single book 

 in the English language which treats of the whole subject of the pre- 

 servation of fruit, although there are several papers dealing with various 

 processes which have appeared in this Journal and other journals, and in 

 bulletins and reports issued by the Royal Agricultural Society and the 

 Boards of Agriculture of our several Colonies and of the United States. 



Our German rivals have a series of books on the subject of the utilisa- 

 tion and preservation of fruit, most of which have been prepared at the 

 Government Fruit Schools. The principal of these works are : — 



Goethe, Rudolf : " Obstverwertung unserer Tage," ii. Auflage, 230 

 Seiten, 8vo. Wiesbaden, 1897. 



Hausner, A. : "Die Fabrication der Konserven und Kandiden." 



Hermann, R. : " Praktisches Handbuch der Industriellen Obst- und 

 Gemiise-Verwertung," 164 Seiten, 8vo. Berlin, 1891. 



"Koche auf Vorrat," 2te Auflage, 132 Seiten, 8vo. Berlin, 1905. 



Mertens, R., und Junge, E. : " Obsteinkochbiichlein," vi. Auflage, 140 

 Seiten, 8vo. Wiesbaden, 1904. 



" Obstdorbiichlein." Wiesbaden. 



Part of the following material has been collected from the above works, 

 and part is the result of personal observation in Germany and elsewhere. 



In the United States of America, although a great deal of attention 

 has been paid to the utilisation of the fruit crop, but few books have 

 appeared on the subject, and a very large part of the most recent informa- 

 tion on the subject is found only in current periodicals such as the 

 ? California Fruit Grower," " Pacific Rural Press," " Western Fruit 

 Grower," " American Agriculturist," and the " Rural New Yorker." 



