A. If you take a glassful of practised in some parts of Europe where t - PDF document

• • i PROTOZOA us SIA I PROTOZO' A. If you take a glassful of practised in some parts of Europe where there water from a stagnant pond and look through is a sufficient period of dry hot weather, it toward the light you will see a multitude of and in California; sun-drying or evaporating tiny creatures. If you take a single drop of after the fruit, has been partially cooked, a this water and examine it under a powerful method practised chiefly in eastern Europe; microscope, you will find that it contains a and curing in evaporators, which is the general number of still smaller creatures. These are in Oregon and so small that a single drop of water is a whole Before curing, the prunes are dipped in a world to them. weak lye solution to clear off the " bloom " They are t.he lo"\"\'est and and fibre of are called ''protozoa,'' from the Greek words the drying process easier. After a thorough meaning ''first living things.'' Each one is a rinsing the fruit is placed in wooden or wire­complete little animal, though it is composed bottomed trays for curing. Sometimes the of only a single cell. One G E T T I N G H E P R U N E S I N 0 T H I R B 0 X E S commonest of these single-celled anjmals is the amreba. (:See .. A.mreba.) Builders of Tiny Houses Tiny as the protozoa are, some of them actually build a little house or shell for themselves out of lime, or some simj]ar substance, which they ma.ke in their own bodies. These are the foraminifera. If you examine them under the microscope you will find that their shells are often just as intricate and beautifully made as the large shells you pick up by the sea­shore. Through many centuries the little shells of the foraminifera have fallen to the bottom of the seas, and in this way our great By means of machinery, which handles them very rapidly, prunes are boxed chalk cliffs have been formed. The and shipped after they have completed the sweating process and been infusoria are still another branch properly graded according to their quality and size. of the protozoa. They are _interesting because skin is punctured with needles in a pricking they have little hairs to S"\Yim. with, and some machine. Six to ten days' exposure in the of them actually have mouths. sun, or from 12 to 48 hours in the evaporators, There are other protozoa, also, which live as will thoroughly dry the prunes. · parasites on higher animals, including man, When dried, the prunes are put in bins or and often cause dangerous diseases. For in-piles to "sweat," and after_ two or three weeks stance, ma.laria, yellow fever, and sleeping they are ready to be graded an.d packed. They sickness are caused by forms of protozoa which are graded according to the number required find their way into the blood and other parts to make a pound. Before they are packed the ()f our bodies. (See Cell ; Germ Theory of prunes are dipped into a hot 'Yater and glycrin Disease.) or fruit solution, which adds to their attractive­ PRUNES. Prunes are plums of certain ness. Sacks and boxes are generally used for varieties that can be dried whole that is, \vith packing, although some of the choicer grades the seeds left in. They a,re among the most are packed like dates. nutritious of foods and are extensively culti-The prune is supposed to have been introduced into va.ted in France and other European countries France from Turkey or Per:::;ia near the close of the �Ctusades. The greater part of the European product .and in the U.S.A., especially California, Oregon, is grown in France, and in Bosnia and Serbia, in .and Washington. 'rhe kind known as French .Jugo-Slavia. (See Plum.) plums comes from the valley of the Loire n1 PRUSSIA, GERMANY. The ruins of the old France. To produce a high grade of prunes, castle of Hohenzollern, from which the former the plums must be meaty a.nd have a high ruling family of Prussia took its name, may still percentage of sugar. be seen as the centre of a narrow lit.tle strip The plums are left on the tree until they are of Prussian territory in the far south-west of so ripe that they fall to the ground. Then they Germany, near the headwaters of the Danube are gathered, graded and cured. There are River. three methods of curing : sun-drying, "'hich is Three factors produced the power of the contained in the Easy Factalndez at the end of thi.s b}ork • • • • •