91 



factory. 



I hope the surplus of fruits and vegetables which we 

 hear such weird tales about once in awhile, being told of a 

 surplus so great that it does not pay to market it, or of 

 things being thrown into the harbors for one reason or an- 

 other, will be taken care of this year, and if it is too much 

 of an undertaking for the community centres which I am 

 sure every town and city will have, then I should like to see 

 it done on a commercial scale. It will take but a very short 

 time to create a market for the dried products once they 

 are well known, and it should be perfectly possible for it to 

 become a paying proposition financially as well as a much 

 needed line of conservation work this year for a drying 

 plant to be established in connection with our large markets 

 and also on a smaller scale for each farmer and fruit grower 

 to have some arrangement for evaporating the products of 

 which he has a surplus. 



The Fruit Growers' Association could do some definite 

 work along this line by arranging for some demonstration 

 of evaporated products in a large market near the fruit or- 

 chards. And I believe these demonstrations to be really 

 as convincing as they should be must show some of the evap- 

 orated product again brought back to its original state and 

 ready to be served. 



In preparing vegetables for drying it is better in most 

 cases to give them some preliminary cooking, in the case of 

 root vegetables so that the 8kins may be easily removed, 

 and in the case of nearly all vegetables the color will be 

 better and the time required for drying quite considerably 

 lessened by pre-cooking. The amount of pre-cooking to be 

 given is a matter of personal preference, they may be en 

 tirely cooked, but this is not necessary, and of course in the 

 commercial evaporating plants very little preliminary cook- 

 ing is done. In fact the potato evaporators of Canada are 

 sending many potatoes over seas and they are simply washed 

 and crushed with the skins on and then dried, but in the 

 home I think you Mnll be better pleased with your product 



