growing. It is useless to attempt to send a bruised or decaying apple on a long journey, since it will arrive in a condition unfit for consumption and, further than this, the organisms which are active in decay are conveyed to the sound fruit, and thus a whole package may be infected from a single apple in bad condition.

Storage of Apples.-The apple is a crop which is capable of being stored through many months, especially in winter time, without any material deterioration. The subject of the storage of apples has been carefully studied in the Bureau of Chemistry and the Bureau of Plant Industry, and the following are some of the conclusions which have been reached:

Tannin Principle.—Apples, as is the case with other fruits, have a notable content of tannin in some form. This constituent of apples is also active in giving flavor and palatability to the product. It is not present in quantities which render the apple unusually bitter or styptic in its character. Inasmuch as tannin is practically a universal constituent of all vegetable substances it must not be neglected as a normal constituent of fruit, while some of the fruits, especially the grape, owe some of their chief characteristics as to flavor and palatability to their tannin content.

Preparation of Apples for Drying.-The apples usually are brought to the large factories in wagons or by railway and are pared and sliced by machinery. Where proper control is exercised all the imperfect, rotten, and infected apples are rejected, and are used either for cattle feeding or sometimes, unfortunately, in cider making. The sound apples, after they are pared and sliced, are placed in trays and passed to a sulfuring apparatus where they are exposed to the fumes of burning sulfur to prevent their becoming dark upon evaporation. In other words it is essentially a bleaching process. The fumes of sulfur are also strongly antiseptic in character, and thus the finished product is less likely to decay or become infected with mould than a similar product not exposed to the fumes of sulfur. This process is extensively practiced, but its extent does not render it immune from proper criticism. Of 24 samples of evaporated fruits purchased on the open market 13 samples had been treated with sulfur fumes. This shows that over 50 percent of evaporated fruits are sulfured during the process of preparation and evaporation. The greater number of physiological and hygienic experts agree that the fumes of burning sulfur, commonly known as sulfurous acid, are injurious to health. It has been shown by researches in the Bureau of Chemistry that sulfurous acid or sulfites have a specific influence upon the red corpuscles of the blood, tending to diminish them very largely in relative numbers. This acid has also many other influences upon metabolism of an objectionable character. The question is one worthy of very careful consideration-whether for the sake of preserving a light color and securing immunity from mould or decay it is advisable to introduce into a food prod

uct any quantity whatever of a substance injurious to health. The answer to this question seems almost unavoidable, and it is, and should be, negative. It is highly advisable that the manufacturer of evaporated apples, as well as other fruits treated in a similar manner, should at once begin a series of experimental determinations for the purpose of ascertaining whether or not a product equally as palatable and more wholesome cannot be made without the use of sulfurous acid. The result of this investigation cannot be doubted. There is no doubt whatever, even at the present time, that by the elimination of the sulfuring process a product can be made which is far more wholesome, although perhaps not so presentable as that which is now made. If all manufacturers of evaporated fruits practice the same method there can be no injury in the market as a result of a darker color which the finished product would assume. On the contrary the consumer of this product would soon understand that the darker color was due to a more hygienic method of preparation, and hence the product would be commended in such a way as doubtless to enter more largely into consumption. Instead of the manufacturer being injured by the prohibition of the use of sulfur he would in a very short time be greatly benefited. It is hoped that by the means of general information which is spread abroad concerning matters of this kind among our people and also through the operations of national and state laws the use of injurious substances, such as the fumes of burning sulfur in connection with food products, may be entirely discontinued.

Dried Apples.-A very important industry in this country is the preservation of apples by drying or evaporation. The term "dried" apples is usually applied to the product which is naturally dried by cutting the apples into convenient sizes and exposing them to the action of the sun. This is more of a domestic than a commercial industry, and until the introduction of artificial drying was practiced very generally by the farmers' wives of the country. It was not an unusual thing in the autumn to see the roofs of smoke houses or kitchens practically covered with sliced apples exposed to the drying influence of the autumnal sun. In such cases care must be exercised always to have the exposed articles under such control as to enable them to be gathered up and put away when rain is threatening. The dried apple is a wholesome fruit, although somewhat unattractive in appearance owing to the darkening of the surface during the long exposure necessary to secure the proper degree of evaporation. When properly prepared the dried apple has its moisture content reduced to approximately 30 percent or less.

Evaporated Apples.-The term "evaporated" is applied to apples produced on the same principle as "dried," but instead of being exposed to the heat of the sun they are artificially dried by evaporation. This industry has reached

a great magnitude in this country, and Wayne Co., New York, especially, may be regarded as one of the centers of the evaporating industry.

Cherries. The cultivated cherry tree is believed by Bailey and Powell to have been derived from its ancestral type, the sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.), which is characterized by a diffuse and mostly low, round-headed growth with fruit which is always red, with soft flesh and very sour taste, and from the sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.), a tall growing tree with the bark tending to peel off in birch-like rings and with variously colored fruit, spherical or heart-shaped, with the flesh hard or soft and generally sweet. There are a great many varieties of these trees. The cherry orchard begins to bear profitably at about the age of five years; the trees often live to a great age and continue to bear fruit. Records of cherry trees over a hundred years old are known. However, it is believed that about thirty years is the limit for profitable bearing. Cherries grow in all parts of the United States. Formerly the crop was a very important one in the East, especially New York, but of late years the California cherries have been more and more occupying the market. As a rule the California cherries are finer in appearance, larger, and freer from worms and imperfections, and possess a flavor which is often equal to that of the best flavored cherries grown in the East.

Composition of Cherries.-What has been said respecting the variations in the composition of apples is applicable with equal force to cherries. In the following table is given first the mean composition of six samples of cherries of American origin with the maximum and minimum. Following this is the mean composition of nine samples of foreign cherries.

The data show that the average quantity of insoluble matter in cherries is about the same whether of American or foreign origin. The total solids represent that part of the cherry which is not water, including principally the cellulose, the ash, and the protein. The quantity of protein, as is seen, is quite small, the average being a little less than 1 percent. The total sugar present, including cane sugar and reducing sugar, is a little over 11 percent. The analytical table does not give the minute portions of essential

oils, ethereal substances, and acids to which the juice owes its distinctive flavor.

Varieties. There are a great many trade-names given to different varieties of cherries. In New York the common varieties are the Black Tartarian, Black Eagle, Napoleon, Yellow Spanish, Windsor, May Duke, Robert's Red Heart, Governor Wood, Early Richmond, etc.

A great many cherry trees are also grown in Iowa. The varieties most prized in Iowa are the Malaheb, the Mazzard, Wild Bird Cherry, Sand Cherry, American Morello, Russian Seedling, Northwest, Duchess d'Angouleme, and very many others.

In Virginia the principal varieties, in addition to those mentioned, which are cultivated, are the Coe, Early Purple, Kirtland Mary, Rockport, Olivet, Philippe, etc.

The cherry owes one of its chief values to the fact that it is one of the first orchard fruits to ripen. In the vicinity of Washington cherries ripen in May, and further north not later than June. The cherry, therefore, offers a delicious and wholesome fruit early in the season, and is the precursor of the crops of orchard fruits which begin early in May and last until the frosts of autumn. It is eaten raw, stewed, or in the form of pie or pudding. For cooking purposes it is desirable that the pit of the cherry be removed.

Grapes. There is no fruit more highly esteemed in this and other countries than grapes. The utilization of grapes for wine making is reserved for discussion in the companion volume to the present manual devoted to beverages. Table grapes are grown extensively in this country in New York, Ohio, Virginia, Missouri, and California. In fact, such grapes are grown in almost every state, but those mentioned embrace the principal grape-growing districts. The Catawba and Delaware varieties are the chief products of the northern vineyards. Many other varieties are produced in California, such as the Tokay, Muscat, and Malaga, while in the South one of the principal varieties is the Scuppernong. The oldest grape vine known in the United States is the original Scuppernong stock.

I am indebted to. Dr. B. W. Kilgore, of Raleigh, N. C., for the following description of the vine and also for Fig. 48.

"THE SCUPPERNONG VINE ON ROANOKE ISLAND, NORTH Carolina. "The old scuppernong grape vine on Roanoke Island is probably the oldest fruiting plant in America-certainly one of the oldest of which there is definite knowledge. A clear record of it begins in 1797, when the land on which it was growing was purchased by Maurice Baum. Previous to his purchase nothing definite is known as to its age or to whom it belonged, save the fact that it was then a very old vine, as Maurice Baum was told by his father that he had eaten grapes from it when a boy. From Maurice Baum the estate,

of which the vine was a part, descended to his daughter, Mahala, and from her to Benjamin F. Meekins, her son, who is the present owner.

"The vine is situated on the northern end and on the eastern shore of the island, about two miles south of the supposed site of Fort Raleigh. It covers an area of about one-fourth of an acre, and as far back as can be remembered its growth has been stationary, probably due to a lack of proper training and inducement to spread. The vine has five large trunks averaging two feet in circumference which are indescribably gnarled and twisted. It is still vigorous

FIG. 48.-SCUPPERNONG GRAPE VINE, ROANOKE ISLAND.-(Courtesy B. W. Kilgore.)

and yields abundantly, seemingly unaffected by age in this respect. A conservative estimate of its yield is an average of sixty bushels of grapes a season." There is no part of the country, however, that grows grapes so abundantly as California. Many thousands of acres are covered with vines, both for table use and wine making. The climate is remarkably well suited to produce a grape very rich in sugar. The edible grapes do not have so high a content of sugar as those used for wine making, as is shown by the data below. Composition of California Grapes (three samples) (edible portion):