FRUIT PRESERVATION. DRYING APPLES. 353 



pattern A, 19 10s. ; 33 trays, pattern 15, 21 15s. ; 55 trays, 22 pattern A and 33 pattern B, 26 10s. ; thermometer 

 3s., packing 5 per cent, extra of the price. 



An apple-parer, corer, and slicer fur small concerns costs 18s., but for industrial establishments a more powerful 

 machine is required. May faith's " Electra " (Fig. 89) pares and cores the apples, and cuts them into a spiral, but the 

 Made which cuts the spiral can be removed for making whole apples that is, without the skin and the core ; price 

 3 15s. Whole ringlets are prepared by a machine called the "Simplex" (Fig. 88), supplied with nine blades 

 arranged in the form of steps, and dispenses with the cut required to transform the spiral cut into ringlets ; price 

 1 7s. 6d. Large evaporators are made for drying apples and other fruit for export. The cost of drying apples is 

 given by Mr. Fidgeon in the " Eoyal Agricultural Society's Journal," March, 1890, as follows : " A bushel of green 

 apples, weighing about 50 pounds, can be dried at a cost of from Gd. to 7d. The total cost of the dried product is 

 from 3d. to 5d. per pound, and of the average selling price from 3|d. to 6d. per pound. One bushel of green apples 

 produces about 6 pounds of dried apples. One pound of coal is consumed in evaporating enough green fruit to yield 

 a pound of dried fruit. Before drying, the apples are pared and cored by one of the many ingenious contrivances 

 in use for that purpose. The pares and cores are dried and sold for jelly making, realising about 4 per ton. A 

 bushel of apples yields about 30 pounds of ' meat ' and 20 pounds of refuse (cores, etc.). The 30 pounds of ' meat' 

 are reduced to 6 pounds by evaporation, and the 20 pounds of refuse to 4 pounds." 



The apples evaporated are reduced from 50 to 10 pounds weight ; this is an important consideration for export, 

 much of the dried product being imported into France for cider-making, simply because it is richer in saccharine 

 matter than green, and also cheaper in price and transit. 



As to the profits of drying apples, the Zimmerman Machine Company give the following particulars: "A 

 bushel of green apples weighs about 50 pounds, is worth from T^d. to 10d., and will produce 65 pounds of evaporated 

 fruit. It will cost 5d. to do the work, and the market value of the evaporated fruit will be from 5d. to 7d. per 

 pound. Assuming these figures to be correct, then the 6^ pounds of evaporated fruit at the lowest price (5d. per 

 pound) will realise 2s. 8|d. Deduct the value of the fruit at highest price (10d.), cost of evaporating, 5d. = Is. 3d., 

 leaving a gross profit of Is. 5Jd., or about 2Jd. per pound, from which carriage and salesman's commission will have 

 to be deducted. The net profit will be over and above the value of the apples as gathered from the trees." 



The same company give the following figures to show the result of one month's run, working day and night, 

 of a No. 3 evaporator : " Produce 2,700 pounds evaporated apples at 7id. [more by IJd. per pound than they can 

 be purchased for retail] = 84 7s. 6d. Cost : 470 bushels apples at lOd. [two-thirds less than the price in 

 England when the markets are glutted] = 18 15s. ; fuel, 30 days at Is. O^d. per day =1 11s. 3d. ; labour, 

 30 days, 8 6s. 8d. = 28 12s. lid. This deducted from the value of the produce shows a gross profit of 

 55 14s. 7d." 



It only remains to point out that as with dried plums or prunes, the conditions in 

 America for producing and drying apples are very different from those in England. 

 Land is much easier, climate favours growers on the American, African, and Australian 

 Continents, also European more than in this country. Nevertheless, there would be 

 abundance of work for evaporators in prolific seasons. Best fruit, however, realises the 

 most money when marketed as fresh. Second-rate fruit in excess-crop years might be 

 converted into good evaporated, the price for which would probably yield a larger 

 profit than if marketed in the green state. The abundant years occur so infrequently, 

 and the waste then occurring being mostly confined to fruit of inferior quality, 

 it would be inadvisable for every English fruit-grower to invest in an evaporator, 

 but there is no reason why one should not be set up in large fruit - growing 

 districts, for drying the fruit in seasons of great plenty, which otherwise would 



VOL. III. 2 Z 



