Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1895 — Drying Tomatoes. [ARTICLE]

Drying Tomatoes.

With our present facilities for canning and preserving tomatoes in many ways, it might seem strange to think of drying them, but in some countries this is a common thing. In Italy an extensive business is carried on in drying tomatoes to use during portions of. the year when fresh fruit cannot be obtained. Tomatoes in that country are grown for the most part between rows of grape vines. Sometimes the plants are trained on the lower bars of the trellis to which the vines are attached. The tomatoes are allowed io remain on the branches until ripe. They are then packed and pressed in bags made of coarse cloth, which allows the pulp to pass through, hut which retains the seeds and skins. The pulp is then thinly spread out on cloth, boards, or in shallow dishes, and exposed to the sun to dry. When it has become quite dry it is broken* up fine or ground, and put in boxes or bags and sent to market Ar large part of it is used for soups, but a considerable portion is employed as we use tomatoes when preserved in tin or other cans. It is soaked for a few hours in warm water, aud then cooked in the ordinary manuer.

Protecting Trees with Wool. A new use of wool has been found by the fruit growers of Western New York.. They use it to put under the bands around the apple trees in early spring, so as to keep the canker worm from ascending. This plan has been adopted by Mr. Udell, one of the largest apple growers in the town of Sweden. All that is needed is a few tacks driven into the tree, to which a string is attached and wound two or three times around the trunk. The wool is poked under these tacks, drawing the string tighter, and effectually- keeping the wool in place. Only two or three ounces of wool are needed per tree, and no worm will ascend above the woolen band. So soon as a worm touches the wool it turns back. This is better than using coal tar, as that hardens after a few days and the worms will crawl over the hardened surface. An Old Farm House Picture, Now the hickory with its hum Cheers the wild and rainy weather, And the shoemaker has come With his lapstone, last and leather. With his head as white as wool, With the wrinkles getting bolder, And his heart with news as full •As the wallet on his shoulder. How the children’s heart will beat, How their eyes will shine with pleasure, As he sets their little feet, Bare and rosy, in his measure! And how behind his chair They will steal, grave looks to summon, As he ties away his hair From his forehead, like a woman. When he tells the merry news, How their eyes will laugh and glisten! While the mother binds the shoes And they gather round and listen. —Alice Cary. Butter Fata from Whey. A new source of butter has been discovered by the Cornell College of Agriculture. It is found in the whey, a waste production in cheese-making, which has heretofore been only fed to hogs and not thought very good food for them. The discovery Is a method by which the butter fats, always present In whey, can bt? separated in making butter. The separator machine is used. The saving will be sufficient in a large cheese factor?* to pay for a separator in a short time. It means a saving to New York dairy mon of fully $1,000,000 worth of butter per year. The butter made by this process is said to be of excellent quality. Bees and Fruit. The Department of Agriculture of the United States has conducted a great many experiments to find out if pos-sible’-'whether the honey bees, which evidently did a great deal of good, were guilty (as charged by some) of destroying ripe fruit. Hives were kept within a building from which the bees could not escape. In this grapes, peaches, peaiS, and plums, varying from green to dead ripe, were placed. The bees were left with the fruit exposed. Many came to the fruit, but never broke the skin, but when they found It broken they fed upon the juice. The test lasted thirty days; other bees were tried with similar results.