94 • BUSH-FBUITS 



pile or stack of trays is lifted by a crank and chain, and a new 

 tray is inserted at the bottom. 



"There are other styles of tower driers which have no lifting 

 devices. The trays slide into slots or rest upon cleats, and they 

 may be taken out and replaced higher up, or the evaporating may 

 be controlled wholly by attention to the heat and to ventilating by 

 opening the doors. Most small evaporators designed for prepar- 

 ing fruit for family use are of this description. Any person who 

 is handy with tools should be able, from all the foregoing account, 

 to make a machine which will evaporate from two to ten bushels 

 of berries or apples a day, and thus be able to save most of the 

 fruit about a small plantation which ordinarily goes to waste. A 

 drier containing ten to twelve trays three feet square, should 

 handle ten bushels of apples a day with ease. A small stove may 

 be used for heater, or a brick furnace may be built. Of small, 

 cheap driers in the market, the Topping, made at Marion, N. Y., 

 and shown in Fig. 18, is much used in Wayne county. This can 

 be had in four sizes, with capacities ranging from five to twenty 

 bushels of apples a day. 



"4. Steam Tray -driers. — Steam is occasionally used in kiln 

 driers, as we have seen, but it is most efficient when applied in 

 closed stacks or boxes underneath trays. For a very large output, 

 steam is probably the most efficient and economical heat, par- 

 ticularly where light power is also wanted for running parers, 

 cider presses, carriers, and the like ; and it also has the advantage 

 of being easily carried to all parts of the establishment for 

 warming purposes. Coils of steam pipe are laid in horizontal 

 tiers, the space between each two tiers being just sufficient to 

 allow of the easy insertion of one or two trays. Each tray is, 

 therefore, independent of all others above or below it, and it may 

 be allowed to remain in its original position until the fruit is 

 finished. A narrow horizontal door is provided for each space. 

 These tiers of steam pipes may reach a total height of five to eight 

 feet, and several stands of them are usually placed along side, 

 and the whole is usually boxed in with lumber. 



"The use of steam is capable of almost endless modifications 

 to suit individual circumstances, and it is so completely within 



