PRUNES

dried plums of certain cultivated varieties. Until as recently as 1890 almost the entire supply was imported from Europe, the principal sources being France, Spain, central Enrope, and the Balkans, but to-day the general market is fully supplied by California and the other Pacific states, and a great many millions of pounds of the California product are annually exported to every part of the world, our best customers being Canada, England, northern Europe, Germany, and France. The California industry started with a few cuttings of the famous Freneh priie d’agen which a French man by the name of Peller planted there in 1856 in his fruit garden in the Santa Clara valley on what is to-day part of the site of the city of San José, At that time the French product led the world. It was soon found that the prune throve in the Santa Clara valley and in other similar localities and that the hot, dry summer brought out its full saccharose qualities. Commercial planting commenced in 1870, and a few vears later the industry commenced its rapid expansion to its great present importance. The course of development was as straight as it was rapid—the prune d’agen still stands supreme as the chief California prune and the Santa Clara valley remains the greatest producing district. Other prunes are larger and some of them are also excellent in flavor, but none has yet combined all the qualities of the prune d’agen—its aromatic flavor, its high sugar content (often exceeding 50% in the dried fruit), its dense, fine texture, its small, smooth stone, and the great adaptability of the tree. An average tree will give from 150 to 300 pounds a year—the figure has gone above 1100 pounds. By the French method of treatment, the plums for the finest grades are picked by hand, spread in shallow baskets, and set in a cool, dry place until they become soft. They are then placed on sieves and shut in spent ovens. At the end of twenty-four hours they are taken out, but only to be replaced after the ovens have been slightly reheated. This proce is repeated once more, the fruits during the interim being turned by slightly shaking the sieves, and then they are removed and allowed to become cold. Finally comes the packing in hermetically sealed cans, tin boxes, and gla jars. The drying proce requires a considerable degree of skill, the aim being to develop the sugar of the prune without changing its flavor or detracting from its fruity character. Some packers follow the drying by various supplementary treatments—obtaining a darker color by means of a harmle pigment, and coating with glycerin to keep the fruit soft and tender. The largest fruits of the highest grade of Freneh prunes number about thirty to the pound. From this, they run up in number and down in grade to 130 to the pound. The figures 50 to 55, 80 to 85, etc., which occur in price-lists, refer to the number of prunes to the pound. Tt takes an average of 214, to three pounds of the fresh fruit to make one pound of prunes, the difference representing the evaporation of the water’ content. By the California method, the fruit is generally allowed to fall from the tree in order to secure the fullest ripene and consequently the greatest po ible sugar content. Drying in the sun is alse substituted for the oven-drying of the French proce ,; heing preceded by immersion in a mild lve solution and a clear water rinse. The prunes are finally graded into sizes—hy decimal grades commencing with twenty to thirty to a pound—and then treated to a cleansing bath of scalding water. The bulk of the product is marketed in boxes of five pounds and upward. The smaller ‘‘faney"’ packings in elude a number of glacé types, stuffed with apricots, nut meats, ginger, ete. The canned product ranges from small ‘‘individual’’ cans, holding only eight or nine prunes, up to the gallon size. The nutriment value of the California prune is high because of its large content of easily digestible sugar, and it is also valuable as a laxative—the water in which it is stewed being for this reason frequently employed as a vehicle for purgative medicines. Next in importance are Oregon prunes, and those of the neighboring state of Washington. They are chiefly of an Italian fruit and constitute a different product Jower in sugar and tart in flavor. There is an increasing demand for them among people who do not like the full sweetne of the California prune. It seems a pity that cheap humor and poor jokes should be laid so heavily on such an excellent, serviceable fruit as the prune—which is always good, always in season, and capable of use in so many different wavs—stewed alone, or (in the ease of California prunes) with tart plums, oranges, lemons, and spices; in pies, puddings, and cakes. The persistence of the ridicule that pursues it, is in part a relic of the time when the common prune was a cheap, poor fruit imported in barrels from central Europe and the Balkans, and in part due to the wide ignorance concerning their proper preparation. Many people make the mistake of boiling the fruit, thus di ipating much of its aromatic flavor and splitting its skin and flesh. This initial mistake is frequently followed by over-cooking —converting the whole into an unsightly, mushy me . Instead, the fruit should be cooked very slowly—without ever reaching the boiling point. Cooking should be continued until the prunes are thoroughly tender—but no longer, One will thus (if the raw fruit is of good quality) obtain stewed prunes that are flavory, delicate but firm, and in every way delicious. The cooking is shortened and simplified by setting the prunes overnight in sufficient warm water to somewhat more than cover them-—then cooking them next day in the same water.: No sugar is needed for good California prunes. Those of the Oregon type are generally improved by about a tablespoonful for each pound. Brignholles prunes, or Prunelles, or Prunellos, are trade names for a small acid variety of French prune, peeled before drving and pitted before being offered for sale. Their flavor suggests the apricot. The true French prunelle is the Stor (which see). Ruby prunes are fruits plucked and proce ed just before ripenmg. They are ruby-red and more tart in flavor than those fully ripened. Silver prunes, which look somewhat like mammoth *‘Sultanas,’’? may be ordinary prunes so proce ed as to give them a light vellowish color, but the best grades are of the dried, mildly tart Silver Prune, a development of the Coe Golden Drop plum.