

LKCT. ix DISPOSAL OF GARDEN PRODUCE 133 



" evaporators." Nothing is lost but water, and the 

 dried produce, such as apple " chips," after being 

 soaked in water, regains nearly its original bulk, and 

 all the good properties are retained for cooking. The 

 fruit-drying industry has attained enormous propor- 

 tions in America. In one year 5,000,000 bushels of 

 green apples were dried, 200,000 tons of water being 

 driven from them by a consumption of 15,000 tons 

 of coal. The chief consuming countries are Ger- 

 many, England, Belgium, Holland and France. The 

 drying of fruit can be as well done in this country as 

 in America, and small unmarketable samples thus 

 utilised, as is proved by experiments with the " May- 

 farth " apparatus in the Royal Horticultural Society's 

 gardens at Chiswick. 



Apples cored and sliced may be dried in kitchen 

 ovens, and plums of the firm-fleshed, thick-skinned 

 kinds converted into prunes. Mr. Philip Crowley, 

 treasurer of the society mentioned, has fruit dried on 

 wire trays in his kitchen oven after the day's baking 

 is done, the door being left slightly open for the 

 escape of moisture. His samples are excellent, and 

 cost nothing in the way of fuel. Fruit properly 

 dried keeps for an indefinite time. Apple chips 

 require soaking two or three hours, and dried plums 

 five or six hours before cooking. 



Vegetables. 



Potatoes. The preservation of vegetables for use 

 throughout the winter is important to the cottage as 

 well as to large growers of produce for sale. Firstly, 

 we have the most serviceable vegetable of all the 

 indispensable potato. As regards all that will be re- 

 quired for table use, the less exposure they have to 

 light and air the better. Such exposure for any con- 



