112 S. C. PRESCOTT 



Dehydration however is not a new art, for drying has been 

 known for hundreds of years, and is probably the oldest method 

 of food preservation which the human race has employed. It 

 was undoubtedly known to the ancients, in fact it must have 

 been practised as soon as man became a food-producing and food- 

 storing animal. In arid regions this could be accomplished with 

 little difficulty. The Indians of the plains and later the early 

 settlers, dried their beef or buffalo meat by cutting it into thin 

 strips and hanging them up for the sun and wind to remove the 

 excess moisture and sear the surface with a protective coating 

 which would prevent infection and spoilage. The material so 

 dried was known as jerked beef. Our early Massachusetts col- 

 onists dried corn after it had been cooked, the product being 

 known as samp. Native fruits and berries were dried in consid- 

 erable quantity, especially the apple. Along the coast fish dry- 

 ing became an important industry, and throughout New England 

 to the present time will be found the application of this process 

 of food preservation as a sort of local or primitive industry, with 

 little exact knowledge of the underlying principles. Similarly, 

 in other parts of the country other fruits, vegetables and meat 

 products have been dried. Peas and sweet corn may be men- 

 tioned as examples of the former, while along the Pacific coast 

 the long sunny dry period lends itself particularly to the drying 

 of prunes, raisins and other sweet fruits. That the results have 

 now always been highly satisfactory cannot be gainsaid, for local 

 differences in method, and differences in season have not infre- 

 quently been the cause of losses, spoilage and inferior products. 



Dried or evaporated fruits have been in use in America for 

 many years and have become an important part of our food 

 products. On the other hand, dried vegetables have, until re- 

 cently, been prepared only on a small scale, although the drying 

 of potatoes was done on a semi-commercial scale in 1886 by A. 

 F. Spawn, an American, resident at that time in Australia. The 

 history of commercial and semi-commercial drying of vegetables 

 in America is an interesting one, but the industry has not until 

 the war period been a success financially, probably owing to the 

 abundance of fresh materials, and to the prejudices which are 



