Fruits and Nuts
Our recent investigations have led us to assign to certain fruits their proper and distinctive title as actual breadstuffs. The populations in many parts of the world depend to a very large extent upon the fruits natural to the soil for their daily food. Thus the Arab of North Africa and Arabia lives almost entirely on the date; the Negro of the tropics on the banana; the South Sea Islander on the breadfruit.
We in temperate climates regard fruit rather as a luxury than a necessary of life. The commonest English fruits are the apple, pear, plum, cherry, apricot, peach, strawberry, raspberry, gooseberry, and currants etc., most of which are cultivated in all parts of the country; but in addition to this, their home-grown supply, they every year importimmense quantities of fruit. Steam navigation has had theeffect of bringing distant lands into such close touch with our own, that we are able to enjoy all the year round, at moderate cost, the fruits of foreign countries in addition to those of our own country. Much foreign fruit supplycomes from Spain, Malta, the Madeiras, the Canary Isles, the United States, and the West Indies. Tasmania has of late years sent us immense cargoes of excellent apples.
In 1886 England imported fruit to the value of ?3,652,225 sterling. This, in addition to their generous homegrown supply, shows the high place which fruit takes as an article of food. In the same year (1886) England"s imports of apples alone amounted to no less than 3,261,460 bushels, and more than half of this quantity came from the United States.
Englands annual imports of oranges and lemons amount to nearly 5,000,000 bushels. The greater part of these come from Spain, but Sicily, Malta, and the West Indies all contribute largely as well.
The St. Michael"s (the smallest and most delicately flavored variety of the fruit) takes its name from one of the Azores, or Western Islands, where it was first exclusively grown.
The Seville orange (from the south of Spain) is distinguished by its slightly bitter taste, and is used in the manufacture of marmalade. The Malta orange is a seedless variety, with a crimson pulp; they are commonly called blood oranges. The European fruit are distinguished as a rule by their smooth, thin skins; they come to us rolled up separately in thin white paper. The West Indian variety are coarser and rougher-skinned fruit. They are notpacked in separate papers.
The lemon, sweet lime, shaddock, and citron come mostly from Madeira, and large quantities of pine- apples are imported from the Azores and Bahamas. The banana of Central America and the West Indies, and the pomegranate of Southern Asia are both to be seen in thefruiterers" shops, and hundreds of tons of fresh grapes are imported, most of which come from Spain.
In addition to the fruits we have already mentioned, and which are known as raw or green fruits, we see in the grocers" shops others, such as raisins, currants, and figs, which have been dried in the sun. England"s annual imports of these dried fruits amount to no less than 20,000 tons. Raisins come from Valencia and Malaga in Spain; sultanas (a seedless variety) from Smyrna; currants from Smyrna and the Ionian Islands; figs chiefly from Smyrna.
It should be carefully borne in mind that the name currant has nothing to do with English red, white, and black currants. Raisins and currants are both dried grapes. The currant takes its name from Corinth; it is the Corinth grape.