MISCELLANEOUS. 583 



•the vessel and the quality of the apples. Let them very gradually come to 

 boiling, keeping them covered tightly. As soon as they are boiling put in as 

 much sugar as you think will be required. I generally use a tea-cupful to 1 qt. 

 of apples, measured before being washed. Keep a tea-kettle full of boiling 

 water always ready when you are cooking, and while the apples are stewing add 

 boiling water from time to time, as it is needed. Boil them slowly and steadily 

 until tender, but not until they seem to shrink up and turn dark. If you use 

 white or brown sugar, and don't add spices, and don't mash the apples into an 

 unsightly mass, and have plenty of juice, with sugar enough to make it rich, 

 but not to deaden its taste of the apple, and serve up while fresh, you can have 

 a dish good enough for anybody to eat, and something better than half the 

 canned fruit in use. 



" The evaporated apples are better than the dried. They should be cov- 

 ered with cold water and only let simmer 10 minutes. They are not in general 

 use, and are of high price, I must not omit to mention that the juice of nicely 

 stewed dried apples is a delicious beverage for the sick, and possesses a flavor 

 peculiarly refreshing and grateful, especially where there is fever," 



Remarks. — This lady is perfectly correct in the idea that plenty of juice is 

 the important part of cooking dried apples. They should also be covered, as 

 she says, while cooking, and although they ought to be cooked tender, yet they 

 should not be done to pieces nor mashed. In this manner, as the girls say 

 now-a-days, "They are just splendid," — no better sauce made, for me. 



2. Drying Fruit at the Manufactories, and Home-Drying.-* 

 At a recent meeting of the Ohio State Horticultural Society, at Canton, 

 Mr. James Edgerton read a paper upon the modern methods of drying or evap- 

 orating fruits. Mr. S. B. Mann, of Adrian, Mich., in response to requests from 

 the members, gave an account of a fruit-drying establishment in his town, ia 

 which five large Alden machines were used. It had cost $10,000, and had paid 

 for itself in five years. Its capacity was 400 bushels every 24 hours. It gave 

 employment to 50 or 60 hands, chiefly girls, working in 2 sets, day and night, 

 paring and cutting the fruit. The benefit to the community from the establish- 

 ment was great, and the neighboring farmers would be sorry to lose it from 

 among them. Mr. Mann said, for the benefit of the ladies, that if they would 

 slice fruit across, in thin slices, place it on trays in the sun, covered with thin 

 muslm cloth, they could dry fruit which would closely resemble that prepared 

 by the Alden process. Mosquito netting was not so good for covering as thin 

 cloth. In the Alden process, the white color was obtained by driving the fimaes 

 of sulphur through the dryer. (See "Evaporated Fruit.") 



These thin sliced apples ought to be dried on wooden trays, not on old tin, 

 by any means. Wooden trays might be easily made about 2 feet long and 15 

 to 20 inches wide, by nailing pieces of lath, slit up to J^ or % square, nailed on 

 end cleats, with a lath of full width on the ends of the cleats running the whole 

 length, to form sides, to prevent the apples from slipping off — the square bits 

 of lath forming the bottom, nailed about J^ inch apart, to allow air to pass up 

 through; the side lath going down a little, say J^ inch below tlie bottom ones, 

 -wnich would thus allow the free passage of air under and up through the bob- 



