FEEDING EUROPE WITH PEACHES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4559, 30 October 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

FEEDING EUROPE WITH PEACHES.

(From the Wilmington Every Evening.)

Wednesday afternoon a special train passed through here for Philadelphia with 2050 orates of peaches. These were last night loaded on the steamship Ohio, of the American line, which left that port to-day for Liverpool, to which place the fruit is consigned. This is the first time Delawareans ever sent a consignment of " peaches to the Old World, and it is now done simply as an experiment. Mr. R. T. Lockwood, of Middletown, goes with the fruit as supercargo, and in Liverpool ho will personally superintend its sale. On his arrival there ho will telegraph the condition of the fruit, and if it is favorable, another cargo will probably bo sent over before the close of the season.

A visit was’ made to the Ohio yesterday, and the arrangements for storing and keeping the peaches were inspected. The refrigerator or room in'which the fruit is stored is-intha

bow of the vessel, in what is called the steerage. The apartment is constructed of matched pine lumber, with a dead air chamber surrounding it on all sides, and is made ns nearly air-tight as possible. The refrigerating process is that of the Bate Refrigerator Company, the principle being to keep up a circulation of dry, cold air through the fruit. This is accomplished in the following manner ; —A large galvanised iron tank, capable of holding fifteen tons of ice, is placed in the centre of the room; it has no bottom, and is raised about six inches from the floor, and rises to the ceiling ; it is securely braced and stayed to prevent shifting. Drainage is provided through lead pipes. Wooden gratings are placed on the bottom, and the tank filled with ice. A small engine of five horse-power, placed near the refrigerator, between decks, runs a blower, which forces a column of air through a pipe one foot in diameter immediately upon the top of the ice, and thence through the Iceland out at the bottom of the tank, where it circulates through the crates of peaches, and escapes through numerous outlets, all leading to a return pipe, which takes the air to the blower again. It is claimed that by thus circulating the same air through the ice its temperature becomes reduced to about thirty-five degrees, causing it to part with its moisture, which is deposited on the ice and finds its way out of the drainage pipes. More or less moisture is removed from the peaches, but only sufficient to dry their surface. The temperature is too low to promote fermentation, and it is claimed that refrigerated fruit is much less likely to rot after being taken out of the refrigerator than that just plucked from the tree. Tlie engine yesterday was sot in motion, when the tank had been partially filled with ice, and within five minutes the thermometer sank to forty-five degrees. As no fresh air is taken in from without, there is no additional heat to overcome after the fruit has once been reduced in temperature, except what may pass through the walls of the apartment. It is believed that fifteen tons of ice will he more than sufficient for the voyage. Fresh meat has been transported to Europe successfully by this process by the White Star and Williams and Guion lines, but no experiment has hitherto been made with fruit. The peaches sent out on the Ohio consist of Reeves Favorite, Old Mixon’s and Crawford’s Early. They were picked yesterday afternoon, and were the finest and firmest that could be found in the orchards of the shippers. _ The weather being cool yesterday, the fruit shipped was dry and in perfect condition.