FRUIT PRESERVATION. DRYING APPLES, 351 



or more evaporators of various sizes), and 45,000 hands were employed during the four months of the year, bringing 

 about, the result quoted above. 



Passing from the foregoing approximations, we find that in the year 1888 apples in the dried state were exported 

 from the United States to the extent of 11,803,161 pounds, of the value of 812,682 dollars. In that year 489,570 

 barrels = 61,196,250 pounds of green apples, were exported by the United States, of the value of 1,876,801 dollars. 

 The importance of dried fruits to an exporting country is immense, but England is not an exporting, but an import- 

 ing country. In 1886, 3,261,460 bushels of apples were imported into this country, and .857,095 paid to exporters. 

 Of that amount the United States contributed 1,647,052 bushels, value 478,895, and the remainder came from Canada, 

 Belgium, Holland, and France. In the season 1888-89 the United States and Canada supplied 1,401,382 barrels of 

 apples to British markets. 



In face of the facts adduced, it has been urged that there ought to be some means of dealing with the surplus fruit 

 which in excess-crop years remains ungathered or is otherwise wasted. In October, 1892, trials with evaporating 

 machines were conducted at Chiswick in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society. 



Drying fruits is an old industry that was somewhat general in Kent about half 

 a century ago, plums being dried in ovens or on trays over fires, but the custom 

 ceased as French prunes were found to be cheaper and better. The experiments at 

 Chiswick confirm this fact the variety Italian Prune (Fellemburg), a large, dark, 

 oval plum with firm flesh giving the best results. It is good for dessert and 

 preserving, and hangs till it shrivels, but it can only be grown satisfactorily in 

 many parts of this country against a wall. The small plums, such as Rivers' 

 Prolific, are too small for drying, too little flesh and too much stone. Diamond, 

 Monarch, and other large, dark, tough- skinned, firm-fleshed plums dry well, and are 

 quite equal to French cooking prunes, which are sold retail at 5d. per pound. The 

 soft -fleshed and tender-skinned plums, as Victoria, do not dry well. Preserving plums 

 by converting them into jam in cases of surplus is, therefore, more generally applicable 

 than drying them in this country. 



In the case of apples a special variety seems as imperative as in plums, and it appears 

 hopeless to make any profit out of drying soft apples in which there is most waste in excess- 

 crop years. This is made clear by Mr. Barron's report of the Chiswick experiments : 



" Fruit drying. During the operation a temperature from 175 to 200 is required for apples, and the time occu- 

 pied is about three hours. 



10 pounds of fresh fruit of Cellini gave 1 pound 8 ounces when dried. 



10 , New Hawthorden .,1 11 " 



10 

 10 

 10 

 10 

 10 



Blenheim Orange 1 



Frogmore Prolific 1 



Lord Suffield 1 



Small's Admirable 1 



Beauty of Hants 2 



12 

 9 

 2 

 3 



4 



The parings and cores have to be added to the weight of the dried fruit when calculating the exact reduction 

 by evaporation. For plums the temperature required is about 250, and the time required is from eight to ten 

 hours." 



