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



drying floors iii order that fruit may be delivered in quantity and placed 

 on trays near the chamber in which it is to be dried. It seems feasible 

 to the writer to eliminate the handling of trays individually in the dryiag 

 chambers by substituting wheeled trucks carrying an entire tier of trays, 

 which could be handled as units.* 'Since the temperatures at bottom 

 and top of a properly constructed and ventilated drying chamber are 

 practically identical, the rate of drying througbout should be uniform. 

 and a truck need not be unloaded until it has been removed and trans- 

 ferred to the curing room. 



It may seem to the reader that undue sjtace is given to discussion of 

 labour-saving devices and of minor economies of operation for eliminating 

 hand labour wherever possible. That this is not done without good 

 reason will, iperhaps, be apparent when it is recalled that the evaporation 

 of fruit is a business in which the margin of iprofit is relatively narrow, 

 and that profits depend upon the handling of large volumes of raw 

 material, while the period in which work can go on is made a short one 

 by uncontrollable climatic conditions. Anything which saves time or 

 reduces hand labour increases output and lowers cost, hence widens the 

 margin of profit. The writer has made an analytical study of a number 

 of unsuccessful jilants, as well as of many very successful ones, and can 

 say that success is not so much dependent on the particular type of 

 evaporator employed as upon economy of time and labour through the 

 employment of niacbines. The rock upon which at least eight out of 

 ten evaporating enterprises are wrecked is the rock of too much hand 

 labour. The plant in which the employees spend the day in the back- 

 breaking task of carrying boxes of fruit across the floor and up and down 

 stairs, or in turning a hand-poiwer slicer or hand parers, each of which 

 needs two or three trimmers to do what the machine should have done, 

 will be a place in which employees will sliirk and save themselves. It 

 must compete with the plant in which this heavy time-consuming work 

 is done by power, and the ultimate result will be that the sheriff will tack 

 a sale notice on the door. The adoiptio"n of such labour-saving devices as 

 are here suggested, and the constant taxing of one's ingenuity to improve 

 them and to develop others, will do more than anything else to insure a 

 permanent business witli satisfactory profits. 



Evaporator Machinery and Equipment. 



Paring Machines. 



Paring machines to be operated by power have been brought to a 

 high degree of perfection, and there are several standard makes of prac- 

 tically equal merit on the market. Among such machines may be men- 

 tioned the " Pacific 'No. 2," tbe Goodell, the " Eanger," the " Improved 

 Triumph," and the Coons. All these are heavy, well made, durable 

 machines, which stand up well under hard and continuous usage. The 



* Such a truck need be merely a substantial base with small, heavy wheels, with a framework for 

 carrying trays equal in height to the height of the drying eli:imbor. The framework should be somewhat 

 narrower than the trays, which should project at cither ^\'\'-. and the cleats supporting the trays must be 

 accurately spaced to correspond to the spacing of air inlets and outlets in the drying chamber. Traya 

 should be inserted at the sides and kept in place by vertical strips at the end of the frame. When rolled 

 into the drying chamber, the proji-efiiig ciiges of the trays should be just above and should overlap the 

 runways on the inner walls of tlie tunii'-l thus insuring lateral movement of the air. 'If substantially 

 built and properly braced to prevent warping, such trucks would soon pay for themselves in the saving of 

 time and effort they would accomplish. 



