464 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



To Operate the Drier. Get started right by taking all day in gradually filling 

 the drier, so that by night time the first trays will be within a few hours of being 

 finished. Start a good fire before putting in the fruit, so as to burn out the oily 

 smells of the new ironwork. Use the eight lower tracks for the fresh fruit Put 

 eight trays in at a time, one tray on each of the eight lower tracks about every 

 forty-five minutes, starting them at the front end over the furnace and pushing 

 along. After ten lots have been so placed the eight lower tracks will be full. 

 Then take out one tray from each track at the back end, and put them in on the 

 upper four tracks, two trays on a track, to be gradually pushed along from time 

 to time, as often as fresh trays are put in at the front, until the machine is full 

 and the driest trays will be at the front end on the upper four tracks. The 

 fresh, wet fruit will in this way have its vapor drawn out through the ventilator 

 close by, without wetting the fruit which is partly dry. 



As the fruit gets drier it is moved into drier and warmer air at the back end. 

 But this fresh air right from the heater below is 180 degrees hot and unsafe for 

 fruit to finish in, so it is started back on the upper tracks to finish in a milder 

 temperature, with enough vapor in the air to allow the fruit to finish gradually 

 without danger of scorching, turning out the fruit in a soft and flexible condition, 

 evenly cured and right in color. This process is peculiar to this evaporator and 

 yields the best results in quality of work done. 



If fruit is rushed too fast through the drier it will get back to the front and 

 top too soon and will be too wet to dry readily in the lower temperature. 



If the beginner gets caught this way, it will be better, after waiting a little, 

 to take it out, and, if still too wet, carry it back to the other end and put in on 

 the upper four tracks again to gradually go forward again. After a little ex- 

 perience he will learn how and when to move the fruit. 



As to variations of heat in different parts of the drier and the effects thereof, 

 it may be added that the thermometer hanging in the current of air just as it 

 strikes the fruit may register 190 degrees and do no harm, for the fruit at that 

 end of the drier has enough moisture to save it. The air cools rapidly, and 

 when it reaches the other end of the drier where the fruit on the top tracks 

 is nearly dry, the temperature will be about 40 degrees cooler. This is one of 

 the most valuable points in this evaporator, finishing the fruit in a lower tem- 

 perature and yet with but little moisture in the air. 



Wood or coal fires will fluctuate in heat, and a careless operator might allow 

 the temperature to get to 200 or 210 degrees, but, if it does not last more than a 

 few minutes, and as the fruit is not too near being finished at the exposed end, 

 no harm is done. A thermometer resting on the tray at the back end lying 

 between the fruit will show about 10 degrees lower temperature than when 

 hanging clear in the draft at that point. 



While drying the trays should not touch the ends of the drier, but be pushed 

 back about a foot and a half from the doors to allow room for free circulation 

 of air at the back end of drier and down at the front end. It takes sixteen to 

 twenty-four hours to dry the fruit, according to kind and size. Apples are dried 

 in six to eight hours. 



The furnace may be made to use any fuel. An oil burner is the best, because 

 the heat can be kept steadily at the maximum. 



