DRYING PRUNES AND OTHER FRUITS. 



379 



the front wall, ??, being only half a foot in 

 thickness. At the top, the vault is arched 

 over with six inches of brick work at the 

 crown of the arch. The flues, i i, are 

 about fourteen inches square. The hur- 

 dles or trays, ?n ???, for containing the prunes, 

 rest upon shelves, fixed upon two bearers. 

 It would be better if they rested upon roll- 

 ers, so as to admit of their being pushed in, 

 and drawn out, with greater ease. These 

 lines of trays are placed at a distance of six 

 inches from the furnace, so as to keep the 

 fruit from too great a heat ; they may be 

 made entirely of wood, but it will be better 

 if the bottoms are of open-work, like sieves. 

 Their weight is such that they may be 

 easily managed by a woman ; but in pre- 

 paring prunes on a large scale, let them be 

 made of greater length and breadth, so as 

 to just come within the strengh of a more 

 robust person. 



" The wooden frame, k h, is that on 

 which the two doors are hung. The door, 

 g, which covers the arch, (and which is re- 

 presented in the cut as open and fastened 

 up,) shuts up the front of the upper part of 

 the oven. In the middle of this upper door 



Fig-. 44.— G'erwaji Oven for Drying Prunes- 



or flap, is a round vent hole, for the escape 

 of the moist vapor, k, is an iron damper, 

 or slide, to be placed in the flue at I I, in 

 order to regulate the heat. 



" A thousand fully ripe Quetsches (prune 

 plums,) make about ten pounds of dried 

 prunes. 



" Plums of difTerent kinds may be dried, 

 either whole, or deprived of their skins and 

 stones. In the latter case, they are styled 

 pricnelles. When the White Perdrigons 

 are used for this purpose, they are merely 

 stoned, without skinning; the latter, from 

 the delicacy of their skins, not being deem- 

 ed necessary. 



" For prunelles, perfectly ripe and sweet 

 plums are to be taken, and suffered to 

 wilt a little in the open air, in order to fa- 

 cilitate stripping off the peel. A better and 

 more expeditious way is to pour hot water 

 over them, and suffer them to steam a few 

 moments. 



"The stone is pressed out at the stem 

 end. In the drying ovens, these prunes 

 must be very carefully and gradually dried. 

 They may also be dried, but not so easily, 

 in the sun." 



