WINTER MEETING AT LEBANON. 217 



should be at least one half an inch thick and not more than one inch 

 in width. Begin six inches above the lower end of the studding and 

 tack these strips three inches apart. 



The trays or frames upon which the fruit is to be placed should be 

 just two by three feet and one inch in depth. The tray frames should 

 be made of strips one inch square. The bottom of the trays should 

 be made of plastering laths two feet in length. They should be placed 

 about one-fourth of an inch apart, except in the center of the trays, 

 where there should be a vacancy of two inches to give proper ventila- 

 tion. The laths at each end of the tray should have their outer edge 

 dressed, and they should be placed on in such a way as to give the tray 

 a play endwise in the evaporator of one eighth of an inch. There 

 should be seventy-two of these trays. 



The evaporator, when completed, should be placed over a furnace 

 of stone or brick, made similar to a sorghum evaporator furnace. 



Dig a trench ten feet long and as deep as desired for a fire-pit, and 

 wide enough when lined with brick or stone to be fifteen inches from 

 wall to wall. Cover the front end of the furnace with a wide flat 

 stone, and the remainder of the furnace with heavy sheet iron or pieces 

 of old stoves. 



Around this furnace build walls two feet high. The distance 

 between the side walls should be three feet, and that of the end walls 

 twelve feet. Upon thpse walls rests the evaporator. 



There should be two or three openings the size of a brick left in 

 the side walls near the ground for the entrance of cold air to drive 

 the heat rapidly upward. Close these when necessary. Attach to 

 the rear end of the furnace a stove-pipe and let it pass through one of 

 the side walls and up on the outside of the evaporator to the height of 

 eight feet. Beneath the trays and above the furnace suspend by wires 

 a strip of sheet iron three feet wide and ten feet long. Bend this in 

 a semi-circle so that the edges of the sides will be two feet apart. 

 Place this sheet iron as near to the trays and as far as possible above 

 the furnace, with its convex side downward. It will then direct the 

 currents of hot air into the air chambers on either side of the evapo- 

 rator. From thence the heated currents pass underneath and over the 

 trays to the opening in the center of the trays; from thence upward 

 and out through the ventilator at the top of the evaporator. 



If you observe closely the above specifications, you need not have 

 any trouble in constructing an evaporator. However, some of my 

 horticultural friends may not understand my plan in every particular. 

 To all such I will write if they enclose stamp. . » 



