10 Nov., 1917.] Eraporation of ApiJles. 67') 



no air openings into the chimney below the flues, as they will increase 

 the consumption of fuel, and cause troulile in other ways. The chimney 

 should be 16 inches square if two flues open into it. Many Of)erators 

 insist that better results are obtained if the chimney is made double all 

 the way up, each opening being 10 x 12 or 12 x 12 inches, but the writer 

 has seen so many plants wTth two kiln.-; piped into a single 16 x 16 flue 

 that he thinks a separate flue for each pipe entirely unnecessary. The 

 chimney should extend far enough above the roof to insure good draught 

 and to prevent damage to fi-uit by the blowing of smoke and soot down 

 the ventilators on windy days. 



The Kiln Flook. 



The kiln floor is constructed of wooden strips, or slats, usually J or 

 1 inch square, but beveled on two sides, so that one face is ^ inch wide. 

 These are nailed to the joists, narrow face down, and are spaced i or f 

 inch apart. There are thus left narrow openings thi-ough which the 

 warm air rises, and as the beveling of the slats makes these openings 

 wider below than above, they cannot become clogged by particles falling 

 through. In the Eastern evaporators, kiln slats are made of basswood, 

 maple, beech, or poplar, and many makers and dealers in evaporating 

 machinery carry such slats in stock. Any hard wood which does not 

 impart flavour to the fruit or warp badly can be used, but fir or other 

 coniferous wood is worse than useless, as the constant high temperature 

 will bring out the resin and give the fruit a persistent odour and flavour 

 which ruins it. 



After the kiln floor is in place, it is oiled a few times at intervals of 

 two or three days with lard oil, paraffin oil, or a mixture of boiled linseed 

 oil and tallow, applied very hot, in order to thoroughly saturate the slats. 

 This prevents sticking of the fruit. After the kiln is in use, one or two 

 oilings each season will keep the floor in good condition, but it should be 

 thoroughly scrubbed with strong, hot soapsuds at least once, preferably 

 twice, each week during the season. 



Steam-heated Kilns. 



Kilns in which the heat was furnished by coils of steam pipe placed 

 beneath the drying floor were at one time rather widely used in western 

 New York, but have in recent years become extremely rare. The writer 

 examined two plants of this type with considerable care, in the belief 

 that this method of heating has decided advantages in regions which are 

 restricted to soft coal or wood as fuel. Unfortunately it was impossible 

 to find in western New York a steam plant of any considerable size, or 

 one in which modern business methods were employed. The plants seen 

 were small, had been built, and were operated largely or wholly, by the 

 owners and their families, and absolutely no records of cost of building 

 materials or of construction had been kept, while such data as to cost of 

 operation as could be secured were merely crude estimates. Such data 

 are of little value, and are rendered less valuable by the extremely unsys- 

 tematic, unbusiness-like methods which were in use in both plants, but 

 it indicates that the cost of construction was about 10 per cent, greater 

 than in ordinary kilns of equal capacity in the same locality, while the 

 operating costs were practically the same. 



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