122 REPORT OP STATE BOARD OF HORTICULTURE. 



To dry fruit is one thing, but to evaporate it quite another 

 — simply to put a lot of fruit on a tray, put it into an oven^ 

 fire up and wait until it is shriveled away to a bony state, 

 almost any one can do ; but to properly " evaporate " fruit, so 

 it is a fine marketable article, requires a good deal of care and 

 intelligence on the part of the operator. 



It is in this, like in all other business or trades, the princi- 

 ples involved must be thoroughly understood, in fact the 

 operator must be educated to it, the same as any master me- 

 chanic. 



The two great principles involved are heat and circulation. 

 Without these two, it is useless to attempt to make good fruit — 

 it cannot be done. And it matters little whether the heat is 

 supplied by a brick furnace, with large radiating pipes or by 

 coils of steam pipes, so long as it can be controlled ; for re- 

 member, liot air in space is a very difficult thing to control, 

 and can only be accomplished in a proiDerly-constructed evapo- 

 rator, with thorough circulation. 



I have experimented for many years in fruit evaporation in 

 variousl}^ constructed evaporators, and we have made rapid 

 strides forward, and as I said, while we have not yet reached 

 our goal, we are very close to the line. I will not attempt to 

 describe the many patented and non-patented evaporators, all 

 of which have good points, and while some operators can make 

 fair fruit on any one of them, none are yet perfect. My own 

 .experience, however, has led me to the conclusion that all 

 fruits must be started at a low heat and finished at a high 

 heat, in order to prevent the loss of the aromatic juices and 

 fruit meats essential to fine fruits ; and in order to accomplish 

 this, the evaporator must be so constructed that the trays of 

 fresh fruits are placed in furthest from, and be made to grad- 

 uallly advance toward, the furnace or steam pipes. There are 

 now two evaporators made in Oregon in which this principle 

 is employed, but it is hardly proper for me to recommend any 

 particular evaporator. 



The dipping-in-lye solution, so objectionable to consumers 

 of refined tastes, must be done away witli. Thanks to Prof. 

 Hoersch-Durren, this is no longer necessary, as fruits 

 "steamed" prior to evaporation make a much finer product. 

 He says it will open the pores of the skin to facilitate evapo- 

 ration and prevent dripping.; it makes the skin tender and 

 eliminates that leathery substance found in most of our dried 

 French prunes; it requires less heat, and "fruit will dry 

 heavier or more meaty" than unsteamed fruit. This alone is 



