Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural LiteratureWalden, J. H.
Science
Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural Literature
Walden, J. H.
Agriculture -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
By one of these processes, exclusion of the atmosphere and thorough
boiling, we may preserve any fruit or vegetable, so as to have an
abundance, nearly as good as the fresh in its season, the whole year,
and that at a trifling expense. All fruits and vegetables may also be
preserved by drying. By being properly dried, the original aroma can be
mostly retained. The essentials in properly drying are artificial heat
and free circulation of the air about the drying articles. Fruit dried
in the sun is not nearly so fine as that dried by artificial heat. An
oven from which bread has just been taken is suitable for this purpose;
but a dry-house is better. A tight room, with a stove in the bottom, and
the fruit in shallow drawers, put in from the outside, serves a good
purpose. Construct the room so as to give a draft, the heated air
passing out at the top, and the process of drying will be greatly
facilitated, and the more rapid the process, without cooking the fruit,
the better will be its quality. This process is applicable to all kinds
of vegetables. Roots, as beets, carrots, parsnips, or potatoes, should
be sliced before drying. The object in drying the latter articles would
be to afford the luxury of good vegetables for armies and ships' crews,
in distant regions, and in climates where they are not grown. Milk can
be condensed and preserved for a long time, and, being greatly reduced
in quantity, it is easily transported. It is not generally known in the
country that Mr. Gail Borden, of New York, has invented a method of
condensing milk, fresh from the cow, so that it will perfectly retain
all its excellences, including the cream, and by being sealed up in tin
cans, as above, may be kept for many months. The milk and the process of
condensation have been scientifically examined by the New York Academy
of Medicine, and pronounced perfect, and of great value to the world. We
have used the condensed milk, which was more than a month old; it had
been kept in a tin can without sealing and without ice, but in a cool
place. It was sweet and good, differing in no respect from fresh milk
from the cow, except that the heat employed in condensing it gave it the
taste of boiled milk. If kept in a warm place, and exposed to the
atmosphere, it may sour nearly as soon as other milk: but it may be
sealed up and kept cool so as to be good for a long time. The
condensation is accomplished by simple evaporation of the watery part,
in pans in vacuo. No substance whatever is put into the milk. Four
gallons of fresh milk are condensed into one. When wanted for use, the
quantity desired is put into twice the quantity of water, which makes
good cream for coffee; or one part to four of water makes good new milk;
and one part to five or six makes a better milk than that usually sold
in cities. Steamers now lay in a supply for a voyage to Liverpool and
return, and on arrival in New York, the milk is as good as when taken on
board. The advantages will be numerous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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