Notes from an Expert Fruit Evaporator.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2596, 2 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

Notes from an Expert Fruit Evaporator.

Mr S. W. Lovell, of New York, contributes the following to the columns of the Mark Lane Express :— Fruit evaporating is a business requiring careful study and experience to be successful, as I have found after a number of years of faithful study. Our grafted varieties of apple yield from (jib. to Sib. of the evaporated fruit to each bushel of 501b. of <j.rcen applrs, accordinc to the care and management the fruit gets during its preparation and drying. The best paring machines are none too good, and until ISSIi there was not a worthy one to be had. But now several very practical mi.ihinfs are in use. I prefer machines tin' p;iro, core, and slice at the sanu tim\ '~i > [ used to think a sepirito A'c.-: necessary to get the grori'ir-.t in-', lij'.i.n. But I can now get 8 ; h. to liic ii i-!i..l by the use of the combine 1 Tib >:• machine. Two girls with thi-i machine can prepare 30 bushels of apples in ten hours, and they work for GJ coots per day each. To save fruit paring machines must have the best of care. The knife guards, knives, and coring tubas should always be ready for exchange, and a machine without interchangeable parts is practically worthless. A popular sentiment is rising against the use of so much sulphur in bleaching fruit. lam glad to see it, but bleaching of some kind will be followed for some time yst. Apples and peaches should be introduced to the bleach as soon as pared, is after that a frnod colour cannot be had, us they turn rod by delay. A good way to preserve the fruit for tho bleacher is to run it as soon as paied int« a vat filled with water made brackish with salt, as then th-j fruit, when dried, would gather moisture and damage its marketing quality. Spread the fruit for drying on trays made of No. 5 <ralvanisod wire cloth. I prefer steim heat for drying, becauso by it much more work can bo done by one fire than by the furnace system, and insurance rates are flower. Cire must bo

taken not to leave the fruit in the evaporator so lonir as to turn it brown. I take out the fruit rather early and spread it about lOiu. deep on a curing floor, where it lies for teu days or two weeks, and is shovelled over once or twice before packing. In this way one can take fruit from the dryer while it is still quite damp, saving fuel and increasing' tho working capacity of the machine. We also get a more marketable quality of fruit, for the colour will bo better. But I am not advising packing' fruit before it is thoroughly dried, which is bound to cause shrinkage; and so much of this has been done (especially on bleached fruit, that will keep in quite a damp condition) that oommission merchants have ;rot into a notion that all packages of evaporated fruits must be docked for shrinkage. No machine is yet made that will do good work on peaches ripo enough to bo of rich flavour, so they must be prepared by hand. They mu4 be bleached like apples, and spread on trays with the flat side next tho wire, to keep the pieces in nice shape. Peaches are packed in 251b boxes, aud a nice facing is laid next the cover. Considerable caro is necessary in drying blackberries aud black raspberries, particularly to sec that they don't dry too much. I hardly dry them enough, but spread them in my curing-room 6in, deep and shovel them over a few times until they are thoroughly dried ; 41b of the black raspberries will make lib of dried fruit, and a bushel of peaches will produce Sib to 101b of the dried article. " Evaporated apples in ring slices are packed for Eastern markets in boxes holding 501b. Two pieces of paper arc placed in the boxes next the cover, and laid so that they will fold back each way from the centre, tupping down on the side of the box, and then the ring slices are laid in rows on the paper, with one half lapping so as to make a nice facing; then the box is filled from the bottom, and if the fruit is thoroughly dried a press is necessary to get 401b into the boxes commonly used, So much depends upon jwoper management and experience that it is diflicult'to give accurate estimates about the business. One may make a failure out of tho same run that another would turn to a profit. Drying waste does, r,ot pay at the present prices. But if you use steam you can make the waste into vinegar stook worth about S3 a barrpl, if the buyer furnishes the barrels. After tho puinaeo has l:»iu about six days it can be pressed again, and gives about a quarter as much juioo as at first, after which the pomace may be burued for fuel in any boiler furnace with a good draught, especially if a little ooal or wood is added.

I do nut think the many little cookstove evaporating devices oan bo recommended at the present prices, as sun-dried fruit oan bo prepared yuifc as rapidly and brings very nearly as much as evaporated., Well-organised evaporating'houses a*<ethe only reliable means of gaining a profit at this business, and ana iuust be very suvo of being rijjhfc before going ahead. Our Western New York markets are now offering G cents, per pound for evaporated apples of prime quality at the evaporator, in sacks furnished by the tmyev. This is as good as 8 cents, in Now York city, as there is uo packing, freights, or commission.