738 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [10 Dec, 1917. 



carrots, onions, cabbage, and celery. The company has bnilt up a con- 

 siderable business in the drying and blending of vegetables for soup, so 

 that the plant is in operation for a large part of the year. 



The furnaces are built of fire brick, and extend back for the entire 

 length of the drying charobers, with a width of 6 feet. Cord wood is 

 burned as it comes from the forest, hence comparatively little time is 

 consumed in firing, and one man can keep the fires going and look after 

 the drying chambers, with occasional assistance when the fruit is being 

 inserted or withdrawn. 



Each furnace is enclosed by brick walls, which extend up to the floor 

 of the lower drying chambers, enclosing a space over the furnace 18 feet 

 long, 9 in width, and 11 in height. In this space there are two tiers of 

 pijje, one above the other, to increase the radiating surface. 



Movement of air through the system is secured by a series of openings 

 in the side walls which enclose the furnaces. These openings are twelve 

 or fifteen in number; each made by leaving out a brick in building the 

 wall. They ajjpear to the writer to be entirely too small to permit 

 adequate circulation of air, and it is certain that more rapid drying 

 would be secured were the openings increased two to four-fold in area. 

 Since the air does not pass through a series of trays as it does in the 

 tunnel evaporator, there is not the same necessity for rapid circulation to 

 prevent the saturation of the air with moisture, but its sluggish move- 

 ment results in greater reduction of temperature, and consequently in 

 slower drying in the upper chambers. 



This system of drying has a number of features which very strongly 

 commend it. The most objectionable feature of the tunnel evaporator, 

 namely, that the fruit in the upper portion of the tunnel is surrounded 

 by nearly saturated air at a temperature many degrees lower than at the 

 bottom of the tunnel, is entirely avoided. The objectionable features of 

 the Charlotte and Carson evaporators have been eliminated, and their 

 desirable characters very materially improved and perfected. The heat 

 produced by the fuel is very fully utilized, and the plant has the advan- 

 tage that the drying units can be made of any desired length, provided 

 the size of the funiace and the radiating surface of the piping be corre- 

 spondingly increased. The very satisfactory quality of the apples, 

 prunes, loganberries, and vegetables produced is evidence that the method 

 can be successfully used in drying any fruit or vegetable material which 

 it might be desired to evaporate. For these reasons,, the Carson-Snyder 

 type of evaporator ought lo receive careful consideration at the hands of 

 those who desire a general purpose evaporator capable of handling a wide 

 variety of fruits. No one should construct a plant of this kind, however, 

 without equipping it completely with labour-saving power machinery, or 

 it is likely to prove an unprofitable investment. It is true that Mr. 

 Snyder's plant at Dayton operates successfully practically without labour- 

 saving machinery, but it is unique in a number of respects. It is located 

 in a region which produces a large volume of each of the fruits commonly 

 evaporated, and the plant therefore has an assured supply of an excep- 

 tional variety of materials, at moderate prices, for an evaporating season 

 of maximum length. Also, this plant has been the pioneer in the evapora- 

 tion of vegetables in the North-'west, and has built up a substantial 

 business in the drying and blending of vegetables for soup stock. Con- 

 sequently, the plant operates for a very large part of each year, and 



