The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-08-28
COOKED FRUIT BY THE ron.
How summer Fruits are TenderIy Cared for
and Preserved Against Winter Fessts.

the year, begin to bother flJlit-stalls and
potter with glass-tumblers and stewed
fruits, putting up" the winters supply
of jellies and preserves, could visit the
establishment through which a World
reporter was yesterday instructed to go,
they would probably open their mouths
as wide in delighted establishment rs
ever did any juvenile supervisor of their
own labors. This was the largest man
ufactory of sirups and preserves in the
CITY. 1t is situated on the west side of
town and occupies what was formerly u
couple of dwelling houses, but are now
united under single roof. The good
DANES might perhaps at first be inclined
to throw up their hands in holy horror
at the untidiness of the place. There
are no whitewashed walls, no old-fash-
Toned chimney-place with oaken mantel
above, no smooth, shining deal-tableS,
no glitter of dairy-pans, no well worn
hearth-stone, not even a solemn ticking
clock in the corner, and as for cats, no
sleek creatures of that species would
ever purr more than once in this estab-
lishment. But when it comes right
down to the preserve making business
there isn't a kitchen in Christendom
that can approach the place. The floors
are uncarpeted, and not over clean, men
rush about in their shirt-sleeves, and
pert young women, whom no New Eng
land housekeeper would tolerate for Il
day, fly hither and thither. their
dresses and aprons covered with the
stains of fruit and their arms barred for
action. In one corner are couple of
great steam engines, and overhead run
leather belts connecting with all sorts Of
strange looking machines. Set against
the wall is a line of great copper tubs,
around which, from the engines in the
corner, run coils of steam pipes. Each
boiler is amply large enough to hold all
the preserve stew that a dozen ordinary
families would need for Il twelyemOnth.
And vet they are all continually full,
sending forth in proper seasons the
aroma of peaches, of plums, of straw
berries. This is the establishment, or
rather one of the largest establishments,
from whence the city hOusekeeper, who
was never intended by nature to make
preserves, draws her sweetmeat sup
plies. The probabilities are that she
doesn't know this fact herself, having
always found them when needed on the
grocer's shelves, but this great untidy
place is nevertheless where they come
from. To be sure, the wholesale pre-
serving and canning business is Il COM
paratiyely new industry, but like many
modern things, it is colossal. Very pO-
lite was the proprietor of this establish
ment to the reporter, letting him snuff
and taste the flavor of lOng-forgotten
fruits, and showing him the minutest
workings of the business. On one side
of the room were huge casks of olives
swimming still in the. brine into which
they had been dropped in Spain. No
olives, the proprietor said, are ever I'M
ported except in this way. 1t is the du-
ty of the preserve manufacturers to res
cue them from this unsavOry bath, and
bottle them in Il more appetizing liquid
afterwards.
81 suppose said the reporter,
''there are seasons of the year when you
find nothing to can or preserve and are
obliged to take vacatiOnPn
mo" replied the preserver, ~''you
would think so, but that isn't the case.
Each month brings its respective fruits
or vegetables, and we are kept pretty
busy all the year round.
''For instance, what do you begin
with? z. Boz ....
"Wen, the preserver's year properly
begins in April, when we take hold of
asparagus" (The parlance of the trade
seems to admit of no other expression
than . taking hold Of - the various ma
terials.) ''Then,'' he continued, in
May we take hold of pineapples. Soon
after this Strawberries come along. We
do a great deal with Strawberries. We
preserve them like this'' (holdmg up q
glass jar in which strawberries perfectly
intact were seen floating about, I" and
we make Jelly of them, and lastly we
extract their juice for Sirup- y. ID. .
"Where do YOU buy your fruit?'' ask
ed the reporter All, that is one of
the great features of the preserver's
trade. There is every thing in buying,
We watch the shipments to this city and
keep our eyes open for a glut day.
Fruit, YOU know, won't keep, and as we
won't buy it when it is at all damaged,
bargain has to be struck. The fruit
dealers hold on to the last moment,
hoping to get better customers, and we
watch them and their fruit at the same
time. The result g is we usually
manage to get all we want
at ou: own prices. After Strawberries
come cherries. We take hold of a great
MANY cherries. The great difficulty in
preserving cherries used to be the num-
Der of hands and the length of time it
took to pit them. We've had 500 girls
in this place at one time pitting cherries
from morning till night, and even then
it was slow work. So after while we
saw we had got to set our wits to work
or give up the cherry business. The re-
suit of our planning was the invention
of this machine We hold the patent
for it and we won't sell one for less than
50, 900" SO saying the proprietor
pointed out to the reporter an inOffensive-
looking concern which the latter was in
formed could take the stones out of
cherries so fast that 125 girls couldn't
pull the stems frelnthem rapidly enough
to keep the machine employed. 1t had
an immense roller covered with little
cups just. large enough each to hold a
Single cherry. When the machine is i'll
1notion a system of tr1sses. sweeps the
fruit into these little ireceptaeles.H lnthe
bottom of each crtp is hole sufficiently
large to admit the passage of the pit.
AS the roller revolves number of little
lancets running in and out of the cups
stab the fruit and permit the. stones to
fall out through the holes described.
This time and labor-saving arrangement
is said to be able to take the stones from
eight tons of cherries in ten hours.
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