590 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Pineapples. 



The Americans also are beginning to preserve Pineapples by canning, and 

 in view of the large imports of these fruits at the present day, the following 

 recipes may be useful to those who prefer to make then own preserves : — * 



For Home Use. — The Pineapple is easily canned for home use. The peeling 

 is removed carefully, the fruit quartered or sliced, and the core taken out. The 

 cans, preferably glass jars, are filled with sections and boiling syrup poured on 

 to fill the jars. These are then set into a kettle of boiling water for fifteen or 

 twenty minutes, then they are removed from the kettle, and the cap, which, 

 with the rubber, has been sterilised, screwed on. 



For flavouring, the Pineapples are secured as fully ripe as practicable. The 

 peeling and slicing is done much as for the canning. The sections are then 

 ground and put up in cans and jars of suitable size. Just as little cooking as 

 possible is done when the fruit is intended for flavouring. To avoid sterilising 

 by means of heat, preservatives of various kinds are used to preserve ground 

 fruit, but this method of putting up fruit for flavouring is reprehensible. Even 

 healthy persons would probably suffer certain injury if small quantities of any 

 preservative were consumed by them daily for any considerable length of time. 

 The fruit to be used for flavouring may also be prepared by treating the ground 

 fruit in the same way as the sliced fruit. This has the disadvantage of losing a 

 part of the flavour, but more of the product may be used and thus avoid the bad 

 effects or the chance of ill effects of the preservative used. 



For Medicinal Purposes. — It is well known that this fruit contains an 

 active principle called " ananasine," which possesses active digestive properties. 

 Advantage has been taken of this fact in the manufacture of Pineapple digester 

 and in separating the active principle for medicinal purposes. 



The Government Agricultural Department in Canada pays consider- 

 able attention to the fruit industry, and as far back as 1896 published, in 

 the Report of the Experimental Farms, some interesting observations 

 made by their horticulturist (Mr. John Craig) on " Evaporating Apples," 

 which recorded the results of some practical experiments as to the relative 

 values of some of the commoner varieties of Apples. " The principal 

 objects in view were : 1. To ascertain the shrinkage in each case caused by 

 paring, coring, and drying ; 2. To note the differences in the appearance 

 and quality of the evaporated product from the several kinds tested." 

 He reported as follows : — 



Five pounds of the fruit of each variety were used. The Apples were 

 pared and cored with a " Family Bay State Parer, Corer, and Slicer," and 

 evaporated, without sulphuring, in the No. 1 Evaporator, kindly loaned by the 

 G. H. Grimm Manufacturing Co., 84 Wellington Street, Montreal, Quebec. The 

 dimensions of this are : Width, 26 inches ; depth, 24 inches ; height, 48 inches. 

 The evaporating chamber holds six wire trays, 22 x 22 inches. It is made of 

 galvanised iron. This size is intended for family use, and is not large enough 

 for evaporating fruit on a commercial scale. It is probably economy, in the 

 long run, to purchase a larger size to begin with, as there is little difference in 

 the amount of time or attention required to operate one successfully. In order 

 to secure true evaporation a high temperature is necessary. This demands the 

 closest attention, as the fruit will crisp and burn quickly if not attended to at 

 the right moment. Cheese-cloth was used to prevent the pared Apples sticking 



* "Pineapple Growing," by Peter H. Rolfs (U.S. A. Farmers 1 Bulletin, No. 140, 

 901, p. 30). 



