This will explain to you why in Canada all kinds of root crops and apples must be so carefully guarded from frost; and when the country was less settled, and even to-day in the less inhabited parts, the apples are still dried in a primitive manner. They are peeled generally by a small machine, then quartered and cored, and strung on long threads by means of a coarse needle. Then they are dried, either near the stove or else in the sun; but this last is not often possible, because of the lateness of the season. The apples thus dried are very good, but if cooked carelessly are apt to be rather tough. In Italy figs are dried in the sun by the peasantry. Each fig is cut open, but not divided, and carefully dried. Then, when dried, they are closed together so as to look like whole figs again, and strung one by one on the long flexible mulberry twigs. They are very good and are less sweet than the dried fig of commerce, as no sugar is added to them in drying. Last year I saw quantities of figs dried by the peasantry in this manner for sale in Switzerland, where they appeared to be quite a novelty. I could not find out where they came from; but I daresay from the Italian canton of Ticino, or, as the French call it, Tessin. This is, of course, warmer than its sister cantons on the northern side of the Alps. I have not seen these yet in England, but there have been some Californian dried figs that were very good for eating, and perhaps we shall see more of them in the future, as the market for them grows more assured. Dried figs are said by the scientists to contain nerve and muscle food, heat and waste, but to be bad for the liver. The same is said of dried prunes, but they afford the best and highest kind of nerve or brain food. They also supply heat and waste; but they are not muscle feeding. All stone fruits are said to be injurious for people who suffer from the liver and should be used rather cautiously. Apples are thought a most valuable food in every way but one--they do not afford staying properties, but they supply the highest nerve and muscle food. If you be fond of almonds, you may like to know that they afford no heat, but give the highest brain, nerve, and muscle food. I hope this applies to the salted almonds which are so popular. The process of drying is called “desiccation” or, usually in America, “evaporated.” The original desiccator is an apparatus much used in chemistry and physics and the word comes from the Latin _desicco_, “I dry up”--meaning that the water is evaporated out of the fruit or any substance to be dried. This idea was carried out into the drying up of the water and fruit juices for commercial purposes. An oven with trays in it to hold the fruit is one of the forms of using heat, and in Lower California the heat of the sun is utilised for the drying of prunes. Some time ago there were notices of the commencement of this industry and the importation of work-people from the neighbourhood of Tours.