TREATMENT OF FRUITS AFTER DRYING 



459 



five or six feet high, of a width equal to the length of the tray and 

 a depth a little more than the width of the tray. The cabinet has a 

 door the whole width of one side, and on the sides within cleats are 

 nailed so that the trays of fruit slip in like drawers into a bureau. 

 Some push in the trays so that the bottom one leaves a little space 

 at the back, the next a little space at the front, and so on, that the 

 fumes may be forced by the draft to pass between the trays back 

 and forward. The essentials seem to be open holes or dampers 

 in the bottom and top of the cabinet so that the fumes from the 

 sulphur burning at the bottom may be thoroughly distributed 

 through the interior, and then all openings are tightly closed. To 

 secure a tight chamber the door has its edge felted and the cabinet 

 is made of matched lumber. Some sulphuring houses are made of 

 reinforced concrete. Some are merely frames freshly covered with 

 building paper each season. The sulphur is usually put on a shovel 

 or iron pot, and it is ignited by a hot coal, or a hot iron, or it is 

 thrown on paper of which the edges are set on fire, or a little alco- 

 hol is put on the sulphur and lighted, etc. The sulphur is usually 

 burned in a pit in the ground under the cabinet. The application 

 of sulphur must be watchfully and carefully made, and the ex- 

 posure of the fruit should only be long enough to accomplish the 

 end desired. The exposure required differs with different fruits, 

 and with the same fruits in different conditions, and must be learned 

 by experience. 



There is much variation in the sizes of houses built to take in 

 truck loads of trays some large enough for one truck, some for 

 two, some built in compartments taking truck-loads side by side, 

 some long, to take a train of trucks end to end; in one case 54 feet 

 long, open at both ends, and tram-tracks running through. 



Grading and Cleaning. After the fruit is sufficiently dried 

 (and it is impossible to describe how this point may be recognized 

 except by the experienced touch), it is gathered from the trays into 

 large boxes and taken to the fruit house. Some growers put it into 

 a revolving drum of punctured sheet iron, which rubs the pieces to- 

 gether and separates it form dust, etc., which falls out through the 

 apertures as the drum revolves. Others empty the fruit upon a 

 large wire-cloth table and pick it over, grading according to size 

 and color, and at the same time the dust and small particles of for- 

 eign matter fall through the wire-cloth. The fanning mill for clean- 

 ing grain may also be used for rapid separation of dirt, leaves, etc., 

 with proper arrangement of metal screens. 



Sweating. All fruit, if stored in mass after drying, becomes 

 moist. This action should take place before packing. To facilitate 

 it, the fruit is put in piles on the floor of the fruit-house and turned 

 occasionally with a scoop shovel ; or, if allowed to sweat in boxes, 

 the fruit is occasionally poured from one box to another. The 

 sweating equalizes the moisture throughout the mass. Some large 

 producers have sweat-rooms with tight walls, which preserve an 



