smaller pieces. The peeled apple is placed in cans as quickly as possible and hot water added to make the fill. If the apples can not be packed in the can at once, they are held in tubs of cold water to prevent their oxidizing or turning brown.

"The waste in the proportion of good apples will be from 20 to 40 per cent, depending in a measure upon whether they are cut into small slices for pie stock or allowed to remain whole for dumplings. The waste is used for jelly stock, and dried for chops and vinegar. The method of utilization depends upon the quality.'

Sirup used on apples is as follows: Fancy 55%, choice 40%, standard 25%, second 10%. The cut out of sirup will be fancy 30, choice 25, standard 18, seconds 12, and water 8 per cent.

After the cans are filled with sirup they are run through the exhaust at 180°F. for small cans and 190°F. for No. 10 cans, and processed at 212°F. as follows: No. 22 cans exhaust 61⁄2 minutes, and process 8 minutes; No. 10 sirup grade, exhaust 10 minutes and process 10 minutes; No. 10 pie grade, exhaust 10 minutes, and process 30 minutes.

The production of apples in the factory should be 49 No. 21⁄2 cans per 100 pounds of fruit, or 41 cases of No. 21⁄2 cans per ton of fruit, requiring 24 pounds of fruit to one dozen No. 21⁄2 cans. The waste in canning operations should not exceed 39% when fair quality of apples are used. A description of the varieties of apples suitable for canning purposes as given is as follows:

YELLOW BELLFLOWER: A winter apple of a very desirable character for canning purposes. It was first grown in Burlington, New Jersey. Fruit is very large, oblong; skin smooth, pale lemon yellow with blush on cheek exposed to sun; flesh is tender, juicy and crisp with a sub acid flavor. Before fully ripe is considerably acid. Is not considered a dessert apple. Ripens in California in October. In colder sections from November to February.

BALDWIN: A New England favorite being a native of Massachusetts. Fruit is large and roundish; color yellow in the shade but covered and striped with crimson and red; dotted with a few russet dots and with radiating streaks of russet about the stem; calyx closed and set in a rather nar

row plaited basin; stem half to three-quarters of an inch long, rather slender; moderately deep cavity; flesh yellowish white, crisp and acid flavor. Tree vigorous. The general characteristics of this apple are the same as the Esopus Spitzenburg. Ripens October to February.

RUSSET: Another New England variety. Fruit rather large and not uniform; flesh yellow, very firm, juicy, sugary and sub acid. Keeps well. Ripens October to March.

NEWTOWN PIPPIN: Handsome in appearance and aromatic when fully ripe. Large yellow with brownish_red cheek; firm, crisp, juicy with a very rich, high flavor. Considered the best winter apple in California. Ripens in California in November, and in colder sections December and May.

RHODE ISLAND GREENING: A universal favorite apple. Does well in all Northern sections of the United States. Tree is very productive. The fruit is large and roundish, and a little flattened. Color is green with a yellowish tint when ripe; flesh yellow, slightly aromatic, crisp and juicy; very tender. November to February.

APRICOTS

The best varieties of apricots for canning purposes are the Blenheim, Royal, Moorpack, Hemskirt and Tilton.

"The apricot is produced for canning and drying in its highest state of development in California. It is one of the good fruits with a distinctive and agreeable flavor, although this is not developed until the fruit is ripe and ready to turn soft. If packed at this stage and a proper sirup used, it is delicious. If packed while immature, it possesses an astringent and peculiar bitter taste that is unpleasant. If it is allowed to become overripe and soft, it melts down under the process and does not have an attractive appearance. The period for proper canning is therefore short, which accounts for much of the inferior product found upon the market. The fruit is grown, hand picked, and-boxed for the factory as peaches are. The apricot is not usually peeled; it is pitted and thoroughly washed, and any black spots (called soot or smut) on the surface are carefully trimmed off. The great bulk of the crop is simply split along the pit mark and

left in halves, a few are peeled, and a few are sliced for a special or fancy trade.

"The cans are filled by hand, the fillers using some care in separating fruit for quality after it has come to them graded for size. Fancy stock must be evenly ripened, of good color, and free from spots or defects. The underripe, soft, and badly smutted pieces are separated for seconds and waterstock."

Apricots are graded for size by running the fruit over the mechanical grader, the screens for which are removable and have openings 2 in., 1% in., 13⁄4 in., 15% in., 11⁄2 in., 13% in., and 1/4 in. Some canners grade a little heavier than this starting with a 21⁄2 in. perforation and grading down to 1/4 inch, by eights. This grading is a little too heavy.

"The use of underripe stock is largely the result of the form of contract which the canner makes with the grower. It calls for the entire crop from an orchard, and at picking time the trees are stripped when the great bulk is ripe, with the result that some of those fruits which should have been left are taken. After the fruit once reaches the factory. there is the same impetus to pass on. Of all the immature fruits the apricot is probably the most objectionable.

"The apricot is decidedly acid and requires a rather heavy sirup to make it acceptable to most persons. Packing in light sirup means that the consumer must add sugar at the time of consumption, when it will require more to secure the same result than if it had been added in the can. An apricot that will not justify the use of a 20° sirup is hardly worth the canning. Apricots are also packed kettle cooked, or in the form of a heavy sauce or butter. The fruit selected for this purpose is usually soft ripe. It is rubbed through a screen to remove the skins and secure smoothness, and evaporated in a jacketed kettle until the desired consistency is obtained. Sugar may or may not be added. For a certain trade, halves or slices of firm fruit are added just before the close of the cooking. This makes an excellent product, but is better known abroad than in this country.

"The apricot does not hold its form or clear-cut outline in the can as well as many other fruits. The pieces soften more or less, resulting in loss of shape and a tendency to pack together, especially if well ripened. The fill on the cut-out does

not vary very much with the degree of sirup. If the can has been well filled, it should cut out about two-thirds full, though the variation between cans of the same degree of sirup may be as great as between the fill of different degrees. The waste in packing unpeeled apricots is from 9 to 15 per cent and in the peeled about 30 per cent. The pits are dried and exported for apricot oil. The windfalls, waste from the peeling-tables, and overripe stock are used for brandy."

Sirup used on apricots is as follows: Fancy 55%, choice 40%, standard 25%, second 10%. The cut-out of the sirup should be fancy 30%; choice 25%; standard 18%; seconds 12% and water 8%.

After the cans are filled with sirup they are run through the exhaust box heated to 180° F. for small cans, and 190° F. for No. 10 cans and processed at 212° F. as follows:

Soft Ripe Quality: No. 1 cans, exhaust 5 min. and process 8 min.; No. 21⁄2 cans, exhaust 61⁄2 min. and process 10 to 12 min., never below 10 min.; No. 10 cans of sirup grades, exhaust 10 min. and process 14 min.; No. 10 pie grade, exhaust 10 min. and process 40 min.; No. 10 baker's pie exhaust 10 min. and process 40 min. Apricots of regular or medium ripe quality: No. 1 cans exhaust 5 min. and process 12 min.; No. 21⁄2 cans exhaust 61⁄2 min. and process 12 to 14 min. (generally for 12 min.); No. 10 cans, sirup grade, exhaust 10 min. and process 14 to 16 min.; No. 10 cans, pie and baker's grade, exhaust 10 min. and process 40 min. Apricots of green ripeness: No. 1 cans, exhaust 5 min. and process 14 min.; 21⁄2 cans, exhaust 61⁄2 min. and process 14 to 16 min.; No. 10 cans, sirup grade, exhaust 10 min. and process 17 to 18 min.; No. 10 cans of pie and baker's grade, exhaust 10 min. and process 40 min.

The baker's grade, called "kettled cooked solid pack pie," is pre-cooked in large copper steam jacketed kettles for 15 minutes. This pre-cooking evaporates the surplus water in the fruit allowing a greater weight of the pulp to be filled into the cans. The pulp is filled into the cans from the kettles with dippers and then run through the exhaust and processed. All pie fruit is now run through a "pre-cooking" machine before being exhausted and processed. Most canners give the name "solid pack pie" to fruit treated in this way but the quality is inferior to that which is "kettle

cooked," though the latter is the more expensive. This process applies to all varieties of fruit other than apricots that may be treated in this manner under the name "baker's" or "kettle cooked."

The waste in canning apricots due to the removal of the pit, trimming and other loss should not exceed 10 per cent except in the case of peeled cots when the loss will run as high as 30 per cent.

The production of apricots should be 72 No. 21⁄2 cans per 100 pounds of fruit, or 60 cases per ton, and one dozen No. 21⁄2 cans should require 161⁄2 pounds of fruit to pack.

The percentage of grades of apricots should run not less than: Fancy 8%, choice 44%, standard 20%, seconds 8%, water, pie and baker's 20%. In all cases the fancy grade is usually packed only for filling orders received in advance of the packing, and this grade can sometimes be increased at the expense of the choice grade.

The description of the grades of canned apricots as adopted by the Canners' League of California is as follows:

Fancy Grade: 24 pieces, or less. No single parcel to vary more than 6 pieces per can. Fruit to be of very high color, ripe yet retaining its form and free from blemishes serious for the grade, halves uniform in size and very symmetrical.

Choice Grade: 30 pieces or less per can. No single parcel should vary more than 7 pieces per can. Fruit to be of high color, ripe yet retaining its form and free from blemishes serious to the grade, halves uniform in size and symmetrical.

Standard Grade: 42 pieces or less per can. No single parcel should vary more than 8 pieces per can. Fruit to be of reasonable good color and reasonably free from blemishes serious for the grade, halves reasonably uniform in size, color and degree of ripeness, and reasonably symmetrical.

Second Grade: No size limits. Fruit to be tolerably free from blemishes serious for the grade, halves tolerably uniform in size, color and degree of ripeness.

Pie Grade: No size limits. Wholesome fruit unsuited for above grades.

The descriptions of the varieties of apricots given are as follows:

BLENHEIM: In California the Blenheim is the most popular variety of apricot. The trees are regular in bearing and