Arizona republican., 1910-01-12
PERSIAN METHODS OF PRESERVING FRUITS.

While Persia is generally famed for it's roses and other beautiful flowers and its tastefully arranged gardens. its orchards, with excellent varieties of finely favored fruit nuts, melons, squashes cucumbers, etc, deserve greater consideration. It is the home of the peach, fact illustrated in the term for this fruit in many languages. The apricots and pectarines are also worthy of mention. Almonds and pistachio nuts are exported in large quantities. A very agreeable method of drying fruit is to include nuts and sugar. removing the pit from a peach. This is called "meampoor" The dried fruit industry is a very important one here.
 To preserve grapes fresh for three or more months, the punches are cov- cred with calico bags to protect them from frost. There are in Persia, all told. nearly loo varieties of grapes. most of which are of an excellent taste, and some of which are seedless There is every reason to believe that most of them would flourish in the United States if care were taken to consider similarity of climate and soil. There is a prospect that in the near futures an experiment will be made in introducing Persian seedless grapes into the Unit ed States. There are no diseases of grapes in Persia so far as have been able to discover. Grapes are suspend ed from ceilings in small fruit shops in the bazars here until the middle of January.
 Apples and quinces are generally covered with leaves in a cellar for their preservation. although frequently they are suspended on cords from the ceil- ings of dry rooms. many being fastened one below another on the cords.
 Watermelons and muskmelons are of a good flavor. They are preserved by hanging them from the ceiling fastened by their stems to cord, or in a net of rather large mesh, or laying them in inches in the walls of dry rooms where there is good ventilation. The climatic conditions in this section are most favorable. as the seasons merge very gradually into one another and the air is very dry-the plain of Iran averaging in altitude about 4,00O feet
 
 The melons of Ispahan are far-famed for size and flavor. Those at Mashad are also very fine. In the southwest ern section of the United States, in Arizona, New Mexico and California, in high attitudes, it is more than likely that melons could be preserved for three or four months in the Persian way.
 There are some very small varieties of watermelons here, about three inches in diameter. which are quite well favored. They sell for the equivalent of half a cent in American currency. I have been told of large ones at Mashad. called "Camel-load," that weigh possibly thirty pounds. The soil in that quarter is very sandy and the air is quite dry. It is question: able, however, that the Persian wa termelon would be regarded as a finer taste than that of the southeastern quarter of the United States. On the other hand, the muskmelons in Persia are a vast improvement on the Ameri can variety. An attractive display of fruit can be seen in. the bazars in most of the villages. as we'll as ih the large cities during the greater part of the year. It affords very cheap and most wholesome food source for the poorer classes. After one has tasted Persian grapes it is hard to relinquish them for the American Concord or most other varieties of America and Europe. It would appear to be a most invit- ing proposition to introduce the best sorts into America.-Consul Doty of TabriZ.