586 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
agency of hot water or steam previous to introducing them into the 
drying chamber, a process resulting in the total destruction of every 
germ or spore of animal life. Other advantages claimed are in reduc- 
ing the time required to dry the fruit and causing the flesh to retain its 
natural color, so that the delicate green of the russet apple can be dis- 
tinguished at a glance from the golden yellow of the pippin. 
There has more recently come into use an iron stove or drying-ma- 
ching, constructed upon the same general principle as the more exten- 
sive and elaborate one above described, but complete in its essential 
points and of simple construction. This stove is made at a compara- 
tively small cost, and can be used in drying all kinds of fruits and vege- 
tables. It is portable, and may be used out of doors or in a building, as 
may be most convenient. 
A fruit-growing neighborhood might subseribe for one of these stoves, 
and it could be used for the benefit of all, making the cost, thus divided, 
comparatively trifling. ey . 
A fire is kept up in the fire-box at the base, and above it are movable 
‘Shelves for apples, peaches, berries, corn, grapes, or other fruits and 
vegetables. A constant stream of hot air-passes through the apparatus, 
sweeping across the trays of fruit and quickly extracting all the moist- 
ure. The smoke-flue from the fire passes through the escape for the hot 
air, and materially assists the movement of the air. 
Drying machines of this inexpensive character are much used in the 
peach districts of the Eastern States and in the grape-growing country 
of the Pacific coast. They are described as easily managed, and will 
dry as much fruit in a day as a family can peel and slice in that time. 
In California these machines are used in curing prunes and raisins, and 
it is claimed that: the fruits thus prepared are equally as good as the 
imported articles. The cost of the apparatus is about $75. » 
Kilns are used in some parts of the country in drying fruit; but 
as the fruit dried in this way, by means of dry heat, is not considered 
by dealers as very marketable, they are not of general use, and are 
giving place to the more convenient and modern process. 
Sulphurous acid gas has been employed in preserving fruit. This gas, 
it is claimed, possesses the power to destroy all infusoria and animal- 
cwes, and fruit properly saturated with it may be preserved indefinitely. 
The mode of applying the gasis by immersing the article to be preserved 
a sufficient length of time in a solution of sulphate of lime or soda, and 
then drying. About two or three pounds of the sulphate of soda to a 
barrel of water is given as the proportion for ordinary purposes. 
All kinds of salads and delicate vegetables, such as onions, asparagus, 
celery, pease, Lima beans, and others already named are preserved by 
these new processes, fresh and dehydrated, like the fruits, for all seasons 
of the year and for all markets of the world, returning at any time 
when desired for use, in water, to their original fullness, color, flavor, and 
other properties. 
Preserving fruits by drying in these improved methods has worked a 
revolution in the dried-fruit trade, and adds a large percentage to the 
production available from every acre of the soil. The result will render 
the products of all climates common and aceessible to all others, and 
provides the poor in all seasons with luxuries which the rich alone have 
heretofore enjoyed. The trade in these articles will, as a consequence, 
be augmented to one of still greater importance. 
The United States annually import 32,931,756 pounds of raisins, 
17,654,637 pounds of prunes, and 3,873,884 pounds of figs. 
The business of raisin-making in California is growing very rapidly. 
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