New Modes of Disposing of Fruit and Vegetables. 591 
long periods, as the air is exhausted, and the germs of fermentation 
are excluded. As regards fruit, much or little sugar may be 
used, or none at all. It is thought by jam-makers that the use of 
sugar tends to retard fermentation, and the precautions that are 
taken to drive out the germs of fermentation and to exclude them 
are most inadequate, so that jam made in the ordinary manner will 
not keep good beyond a year, or two years at most. If an American is 
asked to define fruit-preserving, he will say that it is treating fruit in 
such a way that it will keep good for an indefinite period ; while an 
English person would make reply, that it means boiling, stewing, or 
baking fruit and sugar together. The old-fashioned receipt of one 
pound of sugar to one pound of fruit is still religiously adhered to 
by domestic fruit preservers. In jam factories this hard and fast 
rule is not observed, but excessive quantities of sugar are added, 
which makes the jam sweet and mawkish, depriving it of all real 
fruit flavour. 
Canning might be adopted in Great Britain with much ad- 
vantage, as well as evapoi’ation, both for fruit and vegetables, by 
producers themselves, and by the establishment of factories to which 
this produce could be consigned. By these means surplus fruit could 
be utilised, and the panic pi’ices that are occasionally caused by 
temporary gluts in the markets would be avoided. 
Twenty-five years ago canning had hardly been instituted in 
the United States : now it is general in fruit and vegetable growing 
centres. In California especially there has been a vast development 
of it, and in other fruit-producing States it is making rapid progress. 
There are many factories in the States of Maine and New Jersey 
solely for canning tomatoes and green maize. It is said that when 
one of these factories is established in districts suitable for the pro- 
duction of fruit and vegetables, the value of the land in the neigh- 
bourhood is quickly increased, and the demand for labour and its 
wages are greatly augumented. 
A canning factory is provided with apparatus and machinery 
necessary for paring, coring, and stoning fruit. It is furnished with 
large tanks heated by steam for boiling the fruit and vegetables. 
The process is as follows : — The fruit, in the case of apples, peaches, 
and pears, is pared, cored, and washed in troughs in wdiich there is 
clean water. It is then crammed as tightly as possible into the cans. 
Plums are rapidly stoned by machinery and put closely into the cans. 
Then the cans are marked with the class of fruit in them, and are 
arranged in racks holding many dozens, and placed upon trucks and 
carried to a tank of syrup from which each can is filled up. At this- 
juncture caps, or metal coverings, are soldered on by means of a clever 
machine which works most rapidly. A tiny hole is left in the centre 
of each cap. The truck with the cans is moved forward to a tank, 
containing boiling water, in which the racks of cans lifted from the 
trucks are placed and kept for spaces of time varying with the kind 
of fruit. It should be mentioned here that the hole left in the cap 
is so small that no water gets in and no syrup comes out. After 
this boiling, the racks of cans are replaced on the truck and passed 
