HORTICULTURE 183 



will have to be exercised if this is done to wash everything clean be- 

 fore using again for the fruit. Hence it is always best to keep a part 

 of the dry room separated from the rest for this purpose alone and 

 use it for nothing else. 



APPLES SUITABLE FOR EVAPORATION. 



There is an increasing demand for dried apples of the highest 

 quality. The tendency has sometimes been to make quantity at the 

 expense of quality. But prices are governed not only by the supply 

 but also by the grade. The cleanest, whitest fruit, that is well cored, 

 trimmed, bleached, ringed, and dried, is most in demand. Careless- 

 ness in any particular injures the product. 



Primarily the economic usefulness of an apple evaporator is 

 through its utilization of windfalls and the poorer grades of fruit 

 which can not be marketed to good advantage in a fresh state, and 

 it is these grades that are most often evaporated. But the magnitude 

 of the crop also influences the grade of the evaporated product in a 

 decided way. In seasons of abundant crops and low prices for fresh 

 fruit large quantities of apples that would ordinarily be barreled are 

 evaporated and the grade of stock produced is correspondingly im- 

 proved. On the other hand, in years of scanty crops, when all 

 apples that can possibly be shipped are in demand at high prices, 

 only the very poorest fruit is evaporated, as a rule, thus lowering the 

 grade of the output. 



The commercial grading of evaporated apples is based primarily 

 on appearance rather than on dessert quality, and the fact that one 

 variety may make a better flavored product than another is not con- 

 sidered. As a rule, a product of high commercial grade can be made 

 from any sort which has a firm texture and bleaches to a satisfactory 

 degree of whiteness. A variety of high dessert quality, such as the 

 Northern Spy, may be expected to make an evaporated product of 

 correspondingly high flavor. 



In sections where the Baldwin apple is grown extensively it is in 

 demand at the commercial evaporators, as it meets the requirements 

 in a fair degree and is also available in relatively large quantities. 

 In the Ben Davis sections that variety supplies a similar demand. 



Most early varieties lack sufficient firmness of texture for the 

 best results and are undesirable on this account. On the other hand, 

 some comparatively early sorts, such as Gravenstein and Yellow 

 Summer Pearmain, are considerably prized in some sections; the 

 dessert quality of the latter is especially high. 



Similarly the product made from other sorts possesses qualities 

 that are due more or less to varietal characteristics. For instance, that 

 from Esopus is said to be unusually white ; Hubbardston and vari- 

 eties of the Russet group also make very white stock. The latter 

 make relatively a large amount of stock, by weight, to a given quan- 

 tity of fresh fruit. Limbertwig is said to produce from 1% to 2 

 pounds a bushel more of dried stock than most sorts do, but it is not 

 as white as that from some other varieties. 



Time Required for Drying. The time necessary for drying 

 fruit depends upon several factors. The more important are : Type 



