THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
"Khe Orchard. 
Fruit Pulp. 
G. R. Harrison, Tenterfield. 
Oncx again we have to face the problem of 
earing for the various fruits, that we may enjoy 
them all the year round till the next fruit 
season comes in. 
The man with afew trees, producing more 
than the family can consume immediately, but 
not sufficient to market; andthe man near the 
market who can buy sufficiently at time of glut: 
and the producer, who has much that the market 
will not take, all want a method of keeping 
fruit on a larger scale than the ordinary pre- 
serving bottles permit of. All such willbe glad 
to hear how I have, on three separate occasions, 
put down fruit in 4-gallon packages at cost in 
eash which was small, and at a cost of time, 
skill and labor, which even very busy people 
could afford. 
I will describe how I put down quinces and 
peaches at the Orange Grove, while the guest of 
Mr James Metherell, orange producer and bee- 
keeper on the Colo River, some nive years since 
Seeing that much fruit was likely to be wasted, 
though Mrs Metherell had filled all available re- 
ceptacles with fruit and jam, I secured all the 
obtainable empty kerosene cans, carefully melred 
off the circular cap and soldered up all other 
holes. To remove all traces of kerosene a few 
pints of dry dust (ashes or garden soil) were 
poured in and shaken up so that it reached all 
corners, and they were left in the sun, receiving 
an occasional shake now and then. In a couple 
of days this was poured out, and the tins were 
washed with cold water just to clear out the 
dust; they were then ready. My first batch was 
peaches; they were picked over, stalks pulled 
off, but were neither peeled nor stoned (they 
would probably have been better peeled, but 
all stone fruits improve in flavor if preserved 
with the stones in them). They were placed in a 
boiler, and as little water added as they could 
be boiled with, and as soon as cooked they were 
lifted with a dipper and poured through an im- 
provised funnel— simply -a piece of tinned 
sheet about the size of the head of a kerosene 
tin (which probably it was) rolled in a cone and 
cut off so that it would just about fit the holes 
into the cans. The cans were stood on a sloping 
board, so that the corner with the hole in would 
be the highest point. This allowed the cans to 
be well filled, and yet the fruit was clear of the 
edge of the opening, which was then wiped 
clean and dry, and the caps which had been 
taken off were soldered on again, and the whole 
process was complete. j 
The cans were then removed to a cvol place— 
underneath the house is where I have stored 
them mostly—and there left till wanted. As 
the fruit cools the sides of the cans are drawn 
in, and this assures you that the tin is air- 
tight ; if the sides bulge out much at any time 
you may be sure that there is a leak, and that 
the fruit is fermenting. I have put down some 
thirty cans of various fruits in different years 
and places, but have not had a tin go bad, and 
many were kept for two years. 
When a tin is opened, the contents may be 
made into jam or heated up and poured into or- 
dinary preserving bottles and kept till wanted. 
I have found that it takes about 1} times the 
full of a kerosene tin of the fresh fruit, before 
boiling, to fill a can with the pulp—say, a kero- 
Sene case three parts full. 
oo aE a Ao ts] 
Some people may be afraid they cannot use 
the soldering tools, but they need not fear, itis 
very simple. The tools and material required 
are a proper soldering bolt. about 3d worth of 
spirits of salts, and about 6d worth of tinman’s 
solder, a few bits of clean tin sheet for covering 
holes knocked into the cans for the purpose of 
emptying them. A small pair of tinman’s shears, 
say 8 or 9 inches, are very handy. 
How to Solder.—First clean the parts of the 
copper bit uf the soldering bolt with an old file, 
and heat it in the fire till it just begins to 
change color. Have a vessel, an empty jam tin 
will do, half filled with water, and drop into it 
six or eight drops of the raw spirits of salts, also 
have a glass or delf vessel and pour into it about 
a table-spoonful of the spirit and twice as much 
water, and into this drop small pieces of zinc, 
the liquid will commence to boil furiously, 
giving off pure hydrogen gas. ana will eat up 
the zinc; keep putting in the zinc till it will eat 
no more, when, instead of } ydrochloric acid, you 
will have a solution of the chloride of zinc. This 
isyour soldering liquid, and may be iaid on the 
parts you wish to solder with a brush or feather, 
or even a bit of cane or stick with the end 
bruised. When the bit is hot enough to begin 
to color, puta little piece of solder on to a piece 
of clean tin and put a little of the soldering 
liquid on to it. Dip the point of the bit into 
the acid water in the tin for a moment, this 
cleans it, and put it on the little piece of solder 
on the piece of tin. This should melt and spread 
over the cleaned point of the bit and over the 
tin; this is “tinning the bit.” You may now 
put it into the fire and make it a little hotter, 
but do not make it too hot or ycu will burn it— 
that is, you will fuse the copper and the tin of 
the solder together and make bronze, and this 
will not work well and must be ground off, and 
the operation of tinning gone over again. Cut 
little bits of tin and lay them over any holes to 
be closed; apply the soldering liquid, put a bit 
of solder on top and lay the tinned point of the 
bit on it, and keep it on till the solder is melted 
and has run down around and under the little 
patch of tin. Always keep the bit on till the 
solder has adhered well tothetin. Itis well to 
- run plenty of solder into the groove around the 
opening of the can, when it will be much easier 
to solder on the cap when the fruit isin. 
I trust that this year many farms and 
orchards will have some dozens of cans of pulp 
of various fruits, besides the usual amount in 
bottles and in jam. ' 
The cans with slip in lids, used by bee- 
keepers for honey, can be made quite air tight 
if the lids are pressed well*down and wax or 
mineral wax (paraffine) run in while the tin is 
hot. 
To recapitulate, the steps in the process are, 
First, procure and prepare cans, then procure 
and prepare fruit, and boil with as little water 
as convenient. It will take about 6 gallons of 
the uncooked fruit to fill, when cooked, a 4- 
gallon pan, but if you have cooked fruit enough 
over to partly fill a can, itis all right to keep 
that partly filled can hot till more fruit is 
cooked to fill it : fourth, fill into cans while 
boiling hot and solder down at once ; fifth, 
store in a cool place. 
{Care should be taken when buying solder to 
obtain a suitable grade; this material is made 
of varying quantities of lead and tin and some- 
times bismuth. At the Wagga Experimental 
Farm the solder used in the cannery is made of 
equal parts, lead and tin; this flows freely and 
Feprvay 19, 1906 
does not take a great heat. A solder used for- 
canning that is very good for many purposes, . 
because it melts at a low temperature, is made- 
as follows—Lead 11 1b, tin 2 lb, bismuth 2 oz. 
The lead is melted first, the tin is added next,. 
and finally the bismuth stirred in well just 
before pouring. With a low melting point such . 
as this, viz., 340 deg. F., caps of pulp fruit-cans - 
can be removed without having recourse to tin- 
openers or worse, thus damaging the can.— 
Ep. Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W.] 
Keeping Ripe Fruit. 
Interesting Experiments. 
Some very interesting experiments have been: 
tried in England to determine the effect of the 
use of formalin as a preservative of ripe fruit. 
The following comments appeared in the-- 
British Journal of the Board of Agriculture— 
Pasteur proved that the rotting or fermenta- 
tion of ripe fruit was ‘due to the presence of © 
bacteria on the skin or rinds, From this start- 
ing point it was inferred that if these organ- 
isms could be destroyed, the period during 
which such fruit might be kept in perfect con- 
dition could be considerably prolonged, and a 
series of experiments conducted in the Jodrell - 
Laboratory at Kew (London) have proved the - 
inference to be correct. 
The fruits experimented on were ripe cher- 
ries, gooseberries, grapes, pears, and strawber- 
ries. The fruit was not selected but purchased, 
from shops, or in some instances from vendors 
in the street. 
The following table shows the number of ~ 
days during which the fruit after special treat- 
ment remained perfectly sound, after a similar: 
quantity of untreated fruit from the same lot - 
had become mouldy or decayed— 
Cherries ... 300 «» 7 days 
Gooseberries ... .» 7 days 
Grapes ... nee «. 4 days 
Pears Hu ax +. 10 days 
Strawberries ... «. 4 days 
The above table applies in all cases to fruit. - 
that was perfectly ripe when experimented: 
upon, but it was ascertained that if fruit is 
treated before it is ripe, it is equally well pre- 
served, and the normal course of ripening and 
the flavor are not in any way interfered with, as 
is the case where fruit is kept for some time in 
a refrigerator. 
It is suggested that the treatment will be~ 
particularly useful in connection with delicate 
tropical fruits, which are specially liable to early 
decay. Apples and citrus fruits would also repay 
treatment, na 4 
The simple, inexpensive and harmless treat- 
ment is thus described— f 
In. the case of fruits where every pat is . 
eaten—strawberries and the like—there should 
be immersion for ten minutes in cold water con- 
taining 3 per cent. of formalin (which is equal . 
to 40 per cent. of formalde-hyde). On removal | 
the fruit is immersed for five minutes in cold 
water, and afterwards placed on wire netting or 
some similarly open material to drain out dry. 
When the fruit Fasa rind or skin that is not . 
eaten, the immersion in cold water after treat- 
ment in the formalin solution can be omitted 
with advantage. 
Various other preservatives were tested, but 
when all the requisite points—efficiency, ease ~ 
of application, cheapness and absolute freedom 
from danger arising from its use, were taken. 
into consideration, formalin stood first. 
