Fruit Evaporation.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 25 March 1890, Page 3

Fruit Evaporation.

..,.■.. » ' ■. On Monday last advantage was taken of the large concourse of per - ■ons on tae Greytown Reserve to . witness the sports to give an exhibition of a fruit paring and coring ma* chine and also a dessicator or drier. , Mr Coleman Phillips was the moving spirit in this affair and he had a busy time of it with the farmers and ■ettlers generally, who were full of questions and snowed great interest in the process. The ladies also gave

great attention to it. Apples, carrots, and parsnips, were in tv n subjected to the paviug and cutting up process. A fire was lighted in the desiccator and tho out fruit, was placed in layers upon wire trays the heat from the Lubes passed up through these and rapidly acconv plished the purpose intended. It ■was an interesting and instructive exhibition and Mr Phil ips deserve- the thanks of the [coianiuni y f r the trouble ..and expense he went to ii bringing up the apparatus from Dry River[to give the seutlers a knowledge of the process so widely adopted in America* During ihe afternoon Mr Phillips addr^K^a few words publicly to thoMJi^ind him. He explained thaffne not desirous of detract* ing anything from what Mr Spawn had «aid or done while iv Wellington, for that gentleman, doubtless, was unaware that a machine was at work in the Wairarapa. The thanks of the Wellington community were due to Mr B'air of that city for introducing Mr Spawn, for the exhibition of his fruit evaporator had created an interest in the subject of fruit drying. About fifteen months ago, Mr Phillips said, he had a quan* tity of apples over, and hearing that other settlers had apples rotting upon fthe ground, he spoke to a neighbour of his, Mr Parker, fruifcsellcr of Featherston, and suggested thejiniportation of an Evaporator or Dessicator, and buying up the surplus fruit of the district at, say, a Id per lb. Mr Parker thought the thing might work, m Mr Phillips wrote to America for one. The machine arrived here in November Jas.j;, and, the. Government charged '^2 §8 8d duty upon it. Mj Philips "tMJugy the machine might have been spared the infliction of this : pernicious duty. However it was here now, and the people could see how it worked. After ordering the machine Mr Philips began to enquire into its method of workiner. He had Ordered a good many different machines for the use of the dairy farmers, but his difficulty had always been to know as to their practical working. When the Greytown Dairy Factory started none of in the Colony. All he could find out about the machine was this, that the farmers of the Eastern States of America, not being able to compete with the Western States in wheat growing had given up wheat and taken to fruit groining. In one state alone there were 1800 of these machines at work. Not small ones, but proper factories. He had asked Mr Buchanan whether lio had seen any in his passage through the States, but that gentleman had not noticed them. Then the Western States, finding that California could grow excellent fruit, began the industry on a large scale, and it was paying well there, as Mr Spawn pointed out. Townspeople who mistakably took up 200 or 300 acres of country land for farming purposes — a business which they did not understand— and which usually ended in their throwing up or selling their sections to people who did understand farming, would far better devote their attention to a ten or twenty acre orchard, now that they had a certain and assured way of disposing of their produce. before this was assured it would not have paid to have planted out orchards in New Zealand. Therefore it was no use blaming farmers for not having planted orchards before As to the codlin moth. There were plenty of other things to grow besides apples. Peached should be planted again. (These were getting over their attack of blight.) Apricots, damsons, French prune plums. There wajs a proper sort of raspberry that would evaporate. All these things should be planted besides apples. But then, as to codlin moth. Why did not the people tackle it ? In the States the codlin moth had been tackled and conquered. Why was it not conquered here ? Why did not the people of Greytown for instance reduce the pest. A Voice— -How was it to be done. Mr Phillip3 — By united action. It was no use looking to the Government. It waa no use one man clearing the moth and hiß neighbour doing nothing. But he would rather see the codlin moth continue than the settlers remain disunited in energetic and independent steps of suppression. In the States the farmer did not look to Congress for every little thing, but put down the pest for themselves. A Voice— The rabbits were not put down on the Taratahi until an Act was passed. Mr Phillips— The Act did not put down the rabbits there. Nor did it put down the rabbits in South Waira rapa. Their ow» energetic private action did it. The Rabbit D^partm'ent and the Rabbit Act has done no eood iv tHe Colony as yet, for the rabbits were very numerous now about Greytown ev^n. But in th# nittfcfr of fruit growing the people could now go ahead, and if they would only act together tins machine would enable them to do well. The cost of this it le machine in the States was £8, and then there would be the expenses outlhere. The apple pearer auri c Vf r cost 265. It took about ot'gre^n fiuit to produce lib of dried ; the green fruit cduld t>6 reckoned at Id per lb, and the "Mci fruit at 7d.