Page 6 



BETTER FRUIT 



July, 1920 



so built that a partition separates the 

 unpacked fruit from the sorting table 

 in such a way that the fruit may be 

 dumped on the end of the machine in 

 the storage room and then carried 

 through the partition to the packing 

 room which may be heated for the com- 

 fort of the. sorters and packers. One 

 warehouse here is now equipped with 

 portable electric operated belt convey- 

 ors which have proven quite success- 

 ful in taking the fruit into the building 

 and distributing it. The sections are 

 about 20 feet long and may be moved 

 about at will. Most of the larger or- 

 ganizations and dealers now have cold 

 storage and in these plants the packing 

 room is frequently found on the upper 

 floor with skylight and wall light to 

 assist the sorters and packers. The best 

 arranged houses have a room into 

 which the fresh fruit may be received 

 and kept cool until time to pack. The 

 fruit is then moved by means of con- 

 veyors to the sorters and from the sort- 

 ers direct to the packers bins. Con- 

 veyors then carry it past the nailer to 

 the storage room without interruption. 

 Some of the farm packing houses fol- 

 low out this principle to good advant- 

 age but far too many of them make no 

 adequate provision for caring for the 

 fruit in storage either before or after 

 packing and no attention is paid to 

 routing the fruit through the packing 

 room in an orderly manner. Many 

 growers might take better advantage of 

 their present equipment in regard to 



both storage and systematic and econ- 

 omic handling. It is a well known fact 

 that the earlier and softer fruits espe- 

 cially keep much better if cooled down 

 as soon as possible after picking but 

 many growers do not take advantage 

 of what means they have for getting it 

 out of the sun and cooling it off. 



As yet there seems to be no more of 

 a standard in packing house equipment 

 than in construction. Many people 

 have tried out various kinds of mechan- 

 ical graders and sizers and almost as 

 frequently have discarded them. Some 

 of the main troubles with some of these 

 machines has been the inability to get 

 enough fruit over them in a day, the 

 over-crowding of a few bins with cer- 

 tain sizes and the large percentage of 

 mechanically injured fruit resulting 

 from their operation. Some of the best 

 packs in the valley are put up from 

 modifications of the old style canvas 

 bottomed tables. 



Perhaps the most popular method of 

 sorting is the use of an endless belt 

 table. These tables consist of a wide 

 canvas belt or a series of narrow ones 

 running the length of a long table. The 

 table is usually divided into several 

 lanes down which the fruit moves. The 

 central one usually carries the unsorted 

 apples and as they pass the sorters they 

 are placed in the various lanes or bins 

 at the side according to grade. The 

 culls are dropped in pockets from 

 which the return belt carries them to a 

 dump at the end. 



An Extremely Simple Type. 



With any system so far devised the 

 sorters and packers are prone to get 

 the bins too full and then by mauling 

 the fruit around cause needless stem 

 puncturing and bruising. 



As a parting word to those who con- 

 template building soon it would un- 

 doubtedly be worth their while to get 

 in touch with the U. S. Bureau of Mar- 

 kets, Division of Storage Investigations 

 at Spokane, Washington, or Washing- 

 ton, D. C, as these offices have on hand 

 valuable information in regard to the 

 best types and specifications for fruit 

 warehouses. 



Storage House of the Yakima Horticultural Union. 



Dried, Evaporated or Dehydrated 



By Arthur W. Christie. Instructor in Fruit Products. 

 University of California 



The removal of moisture by drying 

 in the sun has been used as a method 

 of preservation for fruits and vege- 

 tables since biblical times. We are now 

 witnessing the phenomenal growth of 

 a new industry which bids fair to dis- 

 turb and possibly to overshadow the 

 earlier methods. This industry pro- 

 poses to dry our fruits and vegetables 

 by artificial means and not to depend 

 on "old Sol," who sometimes forsakes 

 his disciples. A large number of "dry- 

 ing" machines of varying construction 

 have already appeared on the market, 

 and frequent additions to the family 

 are reported. A variety of terms has 

 been used in naming these machines as 

 well as their products. The most com- 

 mon terms are "dryer," "evaporator," 

 and "dehydrator." Since there are no 

 well defined distinctions between these 

 various terms, the use of a number of 

 different terms meaning essentially the 

 same thing is confusing. 



This confusion was most noticeable 

 at the recent convention on evapora- 

 tion of fruits held in San Jose, Febru- 

 ary 7, 1920, under the auspices of the 

 Agricultural Extension Division of the 

 University of California. Several of 

 the speakers used the terms "dried," 

 "evaporated," and "dehydrated" indis- 

 criminately, it being often impossible 

 to ascertain the speaker's real meaning. 

 In order to clarify the terminology used 

 in fruit drying a committee on nomen- 

 clature was appointed by the chairman 

 of the convention, Professor W. T. 

 Clarke. The committee included in its 

 membership a representative of the Ag- 

 ricultural Experiment Station, the 

 United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, and several men closely in touch 

 with the commercial aspects of the sit- 

 uation. The membership of the com- 

 mittee was as follows: Chairman, A. W. 

 Christie, instructor in fruit products, 

 University of California; P. F. Nichols, 

 division of dehydration, bureau of 

 chemistry, United States Department 

 of Agriculture, Atascadero; E. M. Shee- 

 han, dried fruit broker, San Francisco; 

 S. C. Simons, manager of dried vege- 

 table department of E. Clemens Horst 

 Company of San Francisco; H. C. Row- 

 ley, editor of "California Fruit News," 

 San Francisco. 



After thoroughly investigating the no- 

 menclature of dried fruits and vege- 

 tables as well as the various devices 

 for their production, this committee 



