The Sulphuring of Dried Fruits. By E. W. Hilgard. Professor Hilgard discusses the requisites of the ideal material for preserving fruits for fairs and museums. Such preservatives must prevent fermentation or decay, must be liquid, must not extract color and must not change size of fruits, causing them either to swell or shrivel. In order to retain the size, the liquid must be about equal in density to the fruit juices. The addition of the best grades of commercial glycerine is apparently the best means of increasing the density, and as a guide as to the proper quantity to add, the following percentages of soluble matters to total weight are given:

Composition of the Tomato.

Effect of Fertilizers upon Tomatoes.

Effect of Weather upon Tomatoes Preserving Fruits for Exhibition.

"Apples and pears about 12 percent.; plums, prunes, apricots, peaches, about 10 per cent.; cherries about 12 per cent.; most berries, 8 per cent.; currants, 10 per cent.; grapes, in California, 18 to 22 per cent, average, 24 per cent." That is, to any preservative fluid having about the density of water, about 12 per cent, of glycerine should be added for apples, 10 per cent, for apricots, and so on. Several preservative fluids are discussed, but only two appear to meet the requirements: (1) "A solution of one ounce of salicylic acid to five gallons of water, to which as much glycerine has been added as corresponds to the density of the fruit juice, constitutes a preservative fluid which has been used with very satisfactory results heretofore. Trouble has arisen from the use of soda to make the acid dissolve; as already stated, with patience or heating, the water alone will dissolve the acid, and soda need not be used at all." (2) The use of corrosive sublimate (½ oz. to 1 gallon water) is lately recommended in Italy by Professor Pichi, who has used it with marked success in preserving grapes.

This is, of course, very poisonous.

Sulphur is used in the evaporating of fruit in order to bleach the product and to repel or kill insects. Professor Hilgard has made a careful study of the effects of sulphuring fruits, and his denunciations of the operation are well known. The browning of fruits in drying is a perfectly natural process, in whatever manner the evaporation is accomplished, and it is a false taste which demands that the fruits shall be white. "The consumer then has reason to object to dry-sulphured fruit on two counts, either of which is sufficient to condemn the practice. One is that dirty, ill-prepared or damaged fruit may thus be imposed upon him for good quality ; the other that the natural flavor of the fruit is either seriously impaired or sometimes almost completely destroyed, and its acidity is greatly increased. There is another and very serious count in the indictment, namely, that such fruit is unhealthy because containing an antiseptic that impedes digestion, and while the fruit is relatively fresh, causes headaches just as will sulphured wine.

After some time, the sulphurous acid originally introduced becomes converted into sulphuric acid, a condiment that few will desire to consume in their daily food".

Analyses are given showing the amounts of sulphuric acid in commercial samples. In one case the amount of this material - commonly known as oil of vitriol - was equivalent to about 25 grains in a pound of fruit (prunes). " In addition to rendering the fruit unpalatably acid, it had been rendered obnoxious both to the digestive organs and to the teeth. No one could habitually consume such fruits without feeling the effects of such an amount of mineral acid, introduced into his food purely for the gratification of the eye with an unnatural tint".

"But so long as the public and its agents, the dealers, continue willing to pay from 30 to 50 per cent. more for the whitened sepulchres offered them in the shape of sulphured fruit than for that which retains, with its natural flavor and sweetness, the natural tint of dried fruit, and with it the marks of careless or careful treatment, so long will the producer continue to supply the demand for the doctored article, unless, indeed, the law should intervene, as has been done in most European countries. There the sale of sulphured fruit is simply forbidden as injurious to public health, and as coming under suspicion of having been 'doctored up' from an inferior article with fraudulent intent. When, therefore, it is asked what I think is the proper policy to be pursued in this respect by a region which this year will, for the first time, come into the dried fruit market, I reply that I think the time has come to make a step forward and try to put upon the market a first-class article of 'unsul-phured dried fruit,' with the express statement and claim that it is unsulphured and retains the natural sweetness and flavor of California fruit, instead of being reduced to a common level with the worst products of any other country.

For it is certain that the whitish-green dried apples and pears now sold at high prices in our grocery stores might just as well have been grown anywhere from Norway to the Mediterranean for aught they teach of the quality of our fruits".

Sulphuring of Dried Fruits.

If sulphuring is done before the fruit is dried, little if any harm can come. To those manufacturers who desire to slightly improve the appearance of the product "with some regard to the fruit's palatableness," Professor Hilgard makes the following suggestions : "Large quantities of sulphur introduced at once into the drier or sulphuring-box will tend to cause a deposit of sulphur, in substance, on the outside of the fruit, adding its flavor to that of the acid, which alone is useful. The less sulphur put in at one time, and the more air admitted, the less there will be of the visible fumes that carry the sulphur up into the fruit. It is best to let the sulphur catch fire all over before putting it into the box at all. Let whatever sulphuring you must do be done before drying, as in that case not only will the drying process itself drive of a great deal of the superfluous acid and prevent it from penetrating the whole, but the flavor of the interior will penetrate outward and measurably do away with the laboratory odor that will otherwise pervade the fruit package.

"A very sightly and appetizing cinnamon-brown tint for sliced apples and pears may be secured by dipping, for a few minutes, the freshly made slices, contained in a properly shaped basket (of galvanized wire if desired), into a solution of salt, containing not less than two ounces in five gallons of water. This prevents any spotting where the fruit has been touched. Instead of the salt, a similar solution of the bisulphites of soda or lime may be used, which effect a slight external bleaching without injury to the flavor of the fruit.

"Last, but not least, let us try to gradually educate the public taste up to the point of preferring, in this matter, the substance to the shadow, and accepting healthy, brown, high-flavored dried fruit to the sickly-tinted, chemical-tainted product of the sulphur box".

Judicious Sulphuring.