676 Journal of AgricuUure. Victoria. |10 Nov.. 1917. 



A steam plant located near ISTortli Chili, New York, had two 16 s 16 

 foot drying floors, with a total eapaeity of 150 busliels per day. The 

 drying floor was placed 3 feet above the ground level, so that the building 

 was only 10 feet in height at the eaves. From the boiler two main feed 

 pipes were led off, one to each of the drying floors. One-incb pipe was 

 used for tie heating coils, which were jslaced 12 inches beneath the 

 drying floors. Each heating coil opened directly out of the main feed 

 pipe, and consisted of three 16-foot lengths of pipe, connected by elbow 

 unions, so that they passed three times across the floor, 4 inches apart, 

 before entering the return pipe. Each 16-foot floor had sixteen such 

 coils, each 49 feet in length, inclu'iive of elbows and unions, or a total 

 length of 784 feet of 1-in. pipe for 256 square feet of drying floor in 

 each kiln. The ten-horse-power boiler supplied power for running 

 parers, as well as for operating a series of fans which forced the warm 

 air through the fruit, and when the boiler was run at 50 lbs. pressure 

 the drying of apples spread in a 5-inch layer occupied about eighteen 

 hours when the fans were not used, thirteen to fourteen hours when they 

 were operated. 



Despite the fact that evaporation by steam has been abandoned in 

 regions having abundant supplies of cheap hard coal, the method has 

 certain advantages which, in the writer's opinion, make it desirable that 

 it be experimented with in the north-west. Briefly stated, these advan- 

 tages are — 



1. The expense of construction of the evaporator building may he 

 much less, since the building need be only 10-12 feet in height, while the 

 fact that danger from fire is negligible pemiits the use of wood con- 

 struction. 



2. The cheaper grades of soft coal or slack may be used in regions 

 where wood is .scarce or expensive, and the labour of firing is much less 

 than in a kiln of corresponding capacity. 



3. It is much easier to maintain any desired constant temperature 

 with steam than with direct radiation, since automatic regulators can 

 easily be installed. Consequently it is possible to improve the quality of 

 the product and to shorten the time spent in drying. 



Over against these advantages must be set the disadvantages, namely, 

 that the initial expense of purchase and installation of steam piping is 

 considerable, while the deterioration of such pipe is rather rapid, while a 

 steam boiler will usually be useful for no other purpose, hence constitutes 

 a charge of considerable magnitude against the plant. 



Talsen altogether, the advantages of absolute control of temperature 

 during the drying process and of being able to use any sort of fuel make 

 the method one which has considerable promise of value, and the writer 

 believes that, despite the very large number of unsuccessful methods of 

 drying by steam which have been devised in the past, successful and 

 economical methods may yet be worked out. Such methods will be 

 developed, however, by the application of steam to other types of 

 evaporators than the kiln. The use of successive tiers of trays, each 

 heated by coils of pipe placed beneath, with fans to control the circulation 

 of air, will give large drying capacity in a relatively small compass, and 

 will permit less expensive construction, since the danger of fire will be 

 practically absent. Several plants which employ stacks of trays heated 



