422 MISSOTRI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



economizer of fruit in a much better state than by the old sun-drying 

 practice, and a source of considerable profit on a farm with an orchard. 

 During weather cr periods when other work could not be done, this 

 would furnish easy and profitable employment to the men folk. — North- 

 western Farmer. 



A CHEAP FRUIT DRIER. 



The Farmer'' s Call has the following proposition for a cheap fruit 

 drier : Suppose a small octagonal building, not over six or seven feet 

 across, and of a convenient height. In the center, on the floor, a com- 

 mon box stove, or a cook stove would answer. Over this, on a frame 

 support, best made of a bar of iron, set an octagon shaft, to turn in a 

 socket. Into this shaft have a proper number of arms mortised, reach- 

 ing outward horizontally. On these arms stretch cheap cloth, or other 

 suitable material, for shelves for the fruit. On one or more sides a 

 series of sliding windows may be arranged, at which the operator or 

 operators can stand outside and arrange the fruit, the shaft being re- 

 volved for that purpose. Other requirements can easily be imagined. 

 We believe that for twenty or thirty dollars an evaporator can be built 

 on such a plan, that would be just as good and far cheaper than most 

 of the costly concerns in use; and any carpenter with brains could 

 build it. 



CANNING. 



Recently the statement has been published that fruit had been 

 successfully i^reserved by simply heating it to boiling and then tying 

 cotton batting over the mouth of the jar ; but this process has natur- 

 ally been looked upon with suspicion by house-keepers, who have 

 learned by sad experience the fatal efi'ect of the admission of a very 

 little air to a can of fruit. At the Kansas Agricultural College, how- 

 ever, this method has been put to the test of careful experiment by 

 Mrs. Kedzie, teacher of household economy and hygiene, who reports, 

 through the Industrialist^ that it has been a perfect success. She 

 says: 



" In the college kitchen laboratory, experiments were tried with 

 five kinds of fruit, including tomatoes, and the results were perfectly 

 satisfactory in every case, not even a particle of mould forming in the 

 can. In most cases the cotton was simply tied over the canful of hot 

 fruit; in some cases there was a piece of white paper put on first to 

 prevent the cotton from' dropping down and becoming juice-soaked. 

 This seems to be the preferable way. The cotton is taken just as it 



