STATE POMOLOGICAI. SOCIETY. 49 



about eight feet long, to give access to the space between the 

 pipes for the apple. After the apple has been placed in the 

 evaporator it does not need any attention until dry. 



The so-called bleaching of the apple is an important part of 

 the process. In reality they are not bleached at all, for when 

 once discolored by action of the atmosphere no amount of 

 bleaching will make them white again. 



In the early days of evaporating apple, a small quantity of 

 sulphur was placed on the hot surface of the furnace at intervals 

 of about ten minutes, and the fumes would be carried by. the 

 currents of hot air through the whole mass of apple above to 

 the top of the Hue and thence to the open air. The apple was 

 subjected to the sulphur fumes for four or five hours or until 

 dry. When the ap; le becam.e partially dry and in the very long- 

 time it was subjected to the sulphur fumes, there was liable to 

 be a very fine deposit of the sulphur on the apple ; enough so 

 that a person with a fine taste could detect it. But the more 

 modern method is to have a separate bleacher where six trays 

 of the cut fruit may be placed and subjected to sulphur fumes 

 for two minutes, wdiich wall prevent any discoloration of the 

 fruit while in the process of drying. 



It should be remembered that attractiveness of package is as 

 necessary and important for apple as other things, and w^hile 

 the fifty-pound boxes neatly faced with overlapping slices does 

 very well, apple put in one-pound packages in square pasteboard 

 cartons is still more attractive and pleasing to most buyers, and 

 is the best way to put it on the market. 



The theory of evaporating the moisture from fruit (and prac- 

 tical work proves the theory to be correct) is to place the newly 

 cut fruit (after being subjected to the bleaching process for two 

 or three minutes) into a current of very hot air which soon 

 forms a very thin artificial skin or covering to the apple, thus 

 hermetically sealing the broken fruit cells containing fruit sugar 

 and that intangible something which we call flavor. 



The moisture in the apple is turned to vapor by the heat and 

 forced out where it mingles with the air and escapes. The 

 resulting product has all the good qualities of the original apples, 

 for nothing has been added and nothing has been taken away 

 except the moisture, and if the original fruit was good then the 

 product will be good ; but if the apples were crabbed and bitter 



