8io 



Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [ii Dec, 191 i. 



or stewed in their own steam, rather than dried in the way we under- 

 stand the process with our sun-dried raisins, apricots, &c. To this 

 s}stem of drying, they no doubt owe their peculiar qualities and in order 

 to turn out anything at all similar we will, no doubt, find it to our 

 advantage to adopt the methods which are the result of long years of 

 practice in France. 



The Agen prune industry is a very old established one. For fully 50 

 years drying ovens or evaporators have been in general use* j they are 

 usually of small size and worked by the grower himself, this being more 

 to his taste and financial advantage than the sale of his fruit to a drying 

 factory. Though a few^ large industrial establishments exist, home-drying 

 is almost the invariable rule. 



The prune grower thus employs his workmen at a time when other Avork 

 is not urgent ; he uses up pruning wood of little value. The prune 

 d'Ente when very ripe, that is to say, when very rich in sugar and capable 

 of giving a high yield in dry prunes, is difficult to carry owing to the 

 thinness of its skin ; finally, the grower is naturally desirous to keep for 

 himself the profit on drying. 



DIAGRAMMATIC SECTION OF PRUNE OVEN. (AFTER RABATE 



13, recess for fireman; A, co'd air entrance; O, entrance for air to be heated; 

 S, heating chamber; F, fire-box; C, ash-pan; T,T,T, smoke flues; H,H, pipes 

 for removal of moist air; P, door; R,R, rails; W, truck; E,E, shelves to 

 carrying drying travs. — Scale ; about 6 ft. to i in. 



The ovens most favoured are of rather small size. The dimensions 

 of the most successful models at the 19 lo trial were as follows: — length, 

 8 to 9 feet; width, 4 ft. n in. to 5 ft. 3 in. ; with a height of about 

 6 feet above the fire-box. Large orchardists prefer to have several ovens 

 of medium size, rather than one larger one. The highest price which 

 prune-growers are prepared to pay for the machines, exclusive of brick- 

 work, is from ^14 to ^16. Both as regards dimensions and general 

 plan there is a good deal of uniformity, the differences between the com- 

 peting machines mainly concerning details of construction. In a general 

 way, they all consisted of three main parts — a fire-box, a drying chamber 

 ■situated immediately over it, and a truck running on rails on which the 

 trays containing the fruit are stacked : this movable truck permits the 

 rapid withdrawal of the fruit when it needs cooling, as it usually does 

 twice during the drying process. 



* The special dryiii'.- oven his boen evolverl gradually, and is, no doubt, the outcome of the old time 

 method of dryin^^ prunes in the ordinary baker's oven after a batch o' bread has been baked. This is the 

 ■course recommended in old books on the subject. 



