192 



POPULAR GARDENING. 



June 



Fruit Evaporating in Niagara Coun- 

 ty, N. Y. Tall<s with IVIen in 

 tlie Business. 



On May 10th a representative of this .ioiirual 

 started out to look up the fruit evaporating in- 

 terests of Niagara County somewhat. In this 

 county there is not a town but has one or more 

 evaporating establishments in operation during 

 the season of fruit. iSome of the most successful 

 of these are located in the northern jiart of — 

 the county, and this section was made the 

 objective point on this occasion. 



The Brst person visited was Mr. P. H. Corbin, 

 who tor six years has been in the evaporat- 

 ing business at Lewiston. 



APPLES HAVE BEEN THE MAIN ARTICLE 



he has here handled, although Peaches, Sweet 

 Corn and Pumpkins have also been largely 

 evaporated. A few years ago there seemed 

 to be a growing demand for evaporated 

 Pumpkins.a kind of flour hawng been made 

 from them, but the promise was never fully 

 realized, and last year less was done in evap- 

 orating this vegetable with the demand lighter 

 than ever before. In the other articles in 

 Mr. Corbin's line there has been a marked in- 

 crease in the product and its consumption 

 from year to year, except Peaches, which 

 have been hard to procure in late years. 

 The public are beginning more ami more to 

 appreciate evaporated fruit as a cheap and 

 wholesome article of food. According to Mr. 

 Corbin, however, the increase in consumption is 

 mainly in northern cities and regions, the people 

 of the South not seeming to get in the way of 

 using dried fruits. Even Philadelphia is a i)oor 

 market. Large quantities are consumed at sea, 

 while the exyiort trade to Europe, South Amer- 

 ica, etc., begins to assume large proportions. 



Mr. Corbin has given considerable attention to 

 putting upon the market a 



HIGH GRADE OF EVAPORATED FKUITS, 



mainly in the line of Ajiples, with a view to se- 

 curing an extra price. Still he has not met with 

 the encouragement he had hoped for, and now is 

 of the opinion that it is better to confine one's 

 attention to a good grade of A 1 fruit. His extra 

 article was secured by greater pains in the selec- 

 tion of the fruit, in the trimming of the stock- 

 having two trimmers to one parer instead of the 

 usual one, and in cutting a larger core with all 

 other detciils down to packages. But with all this 

 he could count on but about two cents extra per 

 pound when the increase should have been four. 

 His fruit, packed mostly in SO pound boxes, has 

 been in the main exported. All his boxes are 

 plainly marked with his name and address, and 

 he occasionally hears direct from consumers, 

 even those in Europe. 



In Mr. Corbin's establishment the Wilson evap- 

 orator made at Muncie, Pa., is used. Last year 

 he started his evaporatoi-s early in October and 

 kept them going nearly four months. In that 

 time he 



CURED 143,000 POUNDS OF FRUIT, 



:1,IKH) bo.xes, besides cores and skins. There was 

 little loss from rot in the fresh fruit, iis the season 

 was favorable to its keeping. The results of the 

 season's business while satisfactory was not as 



Main Pipe 



sive scale is less hopeful than when it is con- 

 ducted on a smaller one by the fruit grower 

 himself as one branch of his business, with 

 perhaps also working up some neighbor's fruit 

 besides, and for this he gave several reasons, one 

 being that to tit up 



A LARGE ESTABLISHMENT 



required lai'gc capital, and which then laid idle 

 all but a few months in the year. Second, the 



Jini/ri>it(/ SiWi'm r 



Omu 



Shipping Room 



EvaJ>. 



Evaji 



E-jc,/,. 



Steam isiipiili{ p iiic \ 



J*ijics 



C^ 



FIG. 2. END ARRANGEMENT OF STEAM PIPES. 



much so as the year preWous, when the high 

 price of 16 cents per pound placed all evaporator 

 men in the best of spirits. Last fall the price 

 started off at 12 cents, but it has for good Ap|)les 

 reached as low as 8 cents. From Ave to eight 

 pounds of evaporated fruit are counted on from 

 a bushel of Apples, the (juantity varying with 

 the variety. 



Mr. Corbin expressed the opinion that the (mt- 

 look for fruit evaporating as done on an exten- 



M^ork Room 



PciclaiTi-i 



Evuf. 



face of pipes and the next one to it there are 

 three slides for holding the fruit racks. An in- 

 verted funnel cover terminating in a chimney 

 serves to draw off the moist air that has passed 

 through the fruit. Steam for the four evapora- 

 tors In this building is supplied by a .'JO-hor.se 

 Dempster steam generator made by the Demp- 

 ster Engine Works, Buffalo, N. Y. The 



CAPACITY OF THESE EVAPORATORS 



is about fifteen hundred pounds each of 

 dried fruit in 34 hours. In a building some 

 rods away from this one Messrs. Harding & 

 Sweeting also have four large dry heat evap- 

 orators, one a Williams the others constructed 

 after a pattern of their own. A storage house 

 hartng a capacity of 3,000 barrels in the base- 

 ment for fresh frnit is located convenient to 

 both buildings. 



This firm engages mainly in evaporating 

 Blackcap Raspberries, Apples and Peaches. 

 Of the former they themselves are extensive 

 growei-s, having in this place a bearing plan- 

 tation of 18 acres mostly Ohio Blackcaps, and 

 this spring tZ acres more were planted. They 

 prefer the Ohio to all others for its hardiness, 

 productiveness and fine appearance, either 

 when evaporated or for selling fresh. Peaches 

 are rather more abundant about Somerset 

 than in most other parts of Niagara County. 



FIG. 1. GROUND PLAN OF HARDING & SWEETING'S STEAM ^^ ^ ^^^j^ ^^^ ^^^ Peaches are not evapor- 



EVAPORATING BUILDING, SOMERSET, N 



dithculty of getting insurance. Third, the rapid 

 increase of small evaporators. While remarking 

 on the great increase of this business as done on 

 a small scale, he referred to the fact that there 

 was far less sun-dried fruit in market than for- 

 merly, owing to the extremely low price that had 

 been forced upon this, by the superiority of 

 evaporated fruit. The price of the sun-dried 

 article had frequently fell to 3 and 4 cents per 

 pound. There was some demand for sun dried 

 Apples for making a certain coloring material. 

 As regards 



BLEACHING EVAPORATED FRUIT, 



the sulphur process was mostly in use. Salt 

 water has sometimes been employed, Mr. Corbin 

 said, as a substitute, dipping the fruit into it im- 

 mediately after paring and coring,with the effect 

 of preserving the light color, but a salty taste 

 was always perceptible in such fruit. In his 

 opinion there was not the least possible objection 

 to sulphur bleaching if it was done with the 

 slightest: regard for careful w^irk. 



The next place visited by our representative 

 was that of Harding & Sweeting at Somerset Sta- 

 tion (Barker P. O.), P. L. Pallister superintendent. 

 Tills is one of the most extensive estiiblishments 

 in the county, having a capacity of upwards of 

 one thousand bushels of fresh fruit per day, and 

 employing over 100 hands in the scsison. It has 

 been in operation for six years. The proprietors 

 are also largely engaged in evaporating at Ulcott 

 and at Lyndouville in this state. 



This establishment at Somerset is especially in- 

 teresting from the fact of tlie successful experi- 

 ments that have been made in 



EVAPORATING BY STEAM HEAT. 



So satisfactory indeed has this process been 

 that the proj^rietors lisve become completely 

 converted to the system, and hereafter will em- 

 ploy it almost exclusively. The advantages of 

 steam over flue heating as demonstrated here 

 are: Safety from fire, thus being able to secure 

 insurance at low rates; ease of management, 

 there being but one fire (a boiler) employed 

 for all the evaporators instead of one fire to each 

 evaporator as on the old plan; economy of fuel, 

 as cheaper soft coals can be used, while with dry 

 heat evaporating hard coal only is suitable; pro- 

 duct not subjected to injurious gases and fumes. 

 Four large steam eva]>oratoi-s are employed in 

 the main l)uiUiing of this firm, a ground plan of 

 which building and showing the ktcation of the 

 different rooms and apparatus is given in Fig. 1. 

 The size of the building is 64 by 70 ft. Three of 

 these evaporators are known as the Shelby Steam- 

 heat evaporators, and one is a Rice apparatus. 

 A view f)f the end arrangement of the heater 

 pipes of the Shelby evaporator isshown in Figure 

 2. From each length of head pipe, as here shown, 

 there are eight one inch pipes side bj- side, ex- 

 tending to and connecting with similar heads at 

 the other end, said pipes being slightly over 

 twelve feet long. It Is the hot steam iiassing 

 through this system of pipes, and which is 

 fed by a main pipe from the boiler, that creates 

 the heat for drying the fruit. lUitwevn pwh sur- 



ated, they being more profitable when sold in 

 a fresh state. 



For preparing Apples the Eureka parer made 

 at Antrim, N. H., and the Pease Sheer, made at 

 Ontario, N. Y., are mostly used, and which 

 together produce what is known as punched 

 stock. This firm last year jiaid from 15 to 20 cents 

 per bushel for Ajiplcs, using shaken fruit and 

 windfalls. No attention is paid to sorting the 

 fruit except for size, or to turning out more than 

 one main grade of stock. 



Mr. Pallister, the superintendent, in answer to 

 the question of the 



ADVANTAGE OF LARGE ESTABLISHMENTS 



to the particular region in which they are located, 

 said that much of the fruit for which from 15 to 

 20 cents a bushel is now gladly paid, formerlj- 

 netted the growers not more than five cents per 

 bushel for cider making, the best use to which it 

 could be put. In some years the evaporatoi-s of 

 this section not only exhaust the supplies of 

 the region about, but fruit is shipped in by the 

 car load from other regions, even from as far as 

 Michigan. Two years ago when winter Apples 

 fell to 75 cents per barrel, and evaporated fruit 

 was higher in proportion, the evaporators were 

 started up in mid-winter and converted many of 

 the former into the latter. 



Bleaching the fruit is done with brimstone, in 

 a bleaching box, to which the fruit when first 



FIG. 3. FLOOR ARRANGEMENT OF MR. PERRIGO'S 



EVAPORATING BUILDING. 

 placed on the racks is transferred. Fifteen min- 

 utes is considered the right length of time for it 

 to be in sulphur fumes. Over-bleaching of 

 Apples leads to a yellowish color. 



Another establishment visited was that owned 

 by J. E. Perrigo, of Barker Post t)fflce, near 

 Somerset. This one we looked upon as being 

 more nearly reiiresentative of 



THE GENERAL WANT IN THIS LINE 



than others visited in this tri|), becau.se of 

 being conducted on a scale suited to the require- 

 ments of the ordinary fruit grower who e\apor- 

 ates fruit for himself and neighboi-s,as an adjunct 

 to his business as a grower. In the present case 

 Mr. Perrigo has been both the builder of the 

 works and the manager of the e\aporating in all 

 its details. By the aid of the accompanying 

 drawings we shall attempt to describe his estab- 

 lishment and its workings. 



The ground plan of the evaporating building 

 (which is 40 by 24 feet, less a jog), together with 

 the location of the apparatus in it, is shown by 

 Figure 3. The capacity of the works is one hun- 

 dred bushels of green fruit per day, and some 

 fifteen hands are employed. 



