New-York tribune., 1900-12-23
TROPlC FRUIT PRESERVED.
A NEW INDUSTRY FOUND IN AN EyAP-
GRATING PROCESS RECENTLY
PERFECTFD
PERFECTED.

NOred countries, no one who has not seen with
MS eyes the present state Of affairs can fully
realize the change. In a land where nature is
so prodigal that almost the casual thrusting of
Dranch INTO the earth insures tree. desola-
uon and poverty are everywhere found. The
reason is plain enough; it is only the remedy
that has remained a problem. The products of
the tropics are fruits. and the expectation of
these involves a greater risk and a larger
knowledge of the subject than has been at the
command of these countries On every side
there is a waste of food fairly maddening to the
student Of economics; but how TO utilize this
superabundance, how to convey il in proper
shape to the millions who win only a bare sus-
tenance from OyerwOrked soils i'm other coun-
tries is the great and hitherto unsolved prob
lem.
The solution now suggested is one which has
the sanction of Australia and this means more
than appears on the surface. Whether it be be-
cause Australia has fewer lives to care for and
finds them more precious or because the au-
thorities have less TO do cannot be now debated;
but the fact is that Australians are not permit
ted to poison themselves with adulterated food
as is the glorious privilege of free citizens in
this country. The Government watches with a
never sleeping eye the food which supplies the
tables of the people. When, therefore, the Aus
tralian Government indOrses process and gives
Il medals galore il means that science has set
her seal on it. The system of fruit preservation
which is being introduced into the West
Indies and Central America has for some years
been successfully tried in the countries of Aus
tralasia
The new system is one of evaporation, but the
process differs from others in that it is quickly
done and insures absolute cleanliness. The fruit
and vegetables are not dried the ground for
days together, like figs, prunes and similar pre-
serves. Five or six hours is all that is required
10 change fresh fruit into article which will
keep for months and years. and still preserve
the original fiavOr-in some cases actually inn
prove it. 1t is not, however. much the me-
chanical process as the effect on the tropics
which interests the ordinary observer and it is
in this direction that il is at present being de-
veloped.
There is no fruit in the world so easy and
cheap to raise the banana, or which contains
more nutriment and can be served in a greater
variety OF ways. Yet there is no fruit which is
so carelessy exported and the general value of
which is little understood. The banana is
the main object of attack under the new evap-
oratiOn system. The exporting companies use
only the largest bananas, and every year thou
sands and thousands Of lunches rot on the plan
tatiOns in the tropics The evaporation
process takes these smaller bananas and makes
them into a dozen different marketable COM
ulodities There is banana flour, to begin with
q delicacy which is used for the making of
cakes, fritters and the like. There is banana
prepared as a substitute (an excellent One) for
citron and raisins in fruit cake. 1t also makes
a delightful preserve not unlike and quite as
delicate as figs and prunes. Banana butter is
another product; this is sort Of jam, which is
not unknown in tropical countries a great
deIicacy rather difficult to make by the old
fashioned process. All these products can now
be marketed at a small cost The machinery is
not elaborate and the original cost Of the fruit
is almost nothing. IL is estimated that the
banana butter, for instance, can be put on the
F,uroDean market and sold there at less than
half the price OF any native cOndiment. To the
Door of Europe whose list of delicacies is so
limited this will be no small blessing.
The banana is not the only tropical fruit which
is being treated by the process Any one
who has lived in tropical countries knows that
the negroes who are of the track of civiliZa-
tion make from the cassaya kind OF flour
which is extremely wholesome and cheap. This
is also being put up for expectation. The ex-
tremely nutritious okra (the value of which is
fuI,,, realized in the tropics. where it is
stantly used as a food for inValids) is being
r,reDared in quantities for expectation In its
canned form the Okra necessarily fails TO retain
all its value as a food. but the evapOrated vege-
table has been proved by analysis TO contain all