Thinning, Gathering, Keeping, and Marketing. 127 



be placed in a cool and rather dry place. If the temperature is 

 warm, they may Spoil by fermentation ; and experience has fully 

 proved that they mould in a damp cellar. If the temperature were 

 but a few degrees above freezing, they would probably keep unin- 

 jured for years. There is no doubt that the apartment should some- 

 times have the credit which is ascribed to a particular mode of put- 

 ting up. 



Glass jars should be kept in a dark place, to exclude light. 



DRYING FRUIT. 



Drying fruit has several advantages over canning or bottling. It 

 is cheaper; it may be adopted on an extensive scale ; the fruit may be 

 kept with less care ; and being several times lighter than when fresh, 

 may be sent long distances, or to foreign countries, at a moderate cost. 

 When fruit-growers shall learn that dried fruit from the highest flavor- 

 ed sorts is as much better than that from the poor unsaleable varie- 

 ties so often used for this purpose, as the best fresh fruit of the one 

 sort exceeds the other, purchasers will also be willing to pay a much 

 higher price for the best article. When, superadded to this, the fruit 

 is dried rapidly so as to retain a clear, light color, and a perfecl 

 flavor, instead of the dark, half fermented fruit resulting from slow 

 drying in bad weather, there will be no difficulty in finding a read} 

 sale for all that may be offered in market. When abundant seasons 

 occur, the surplus should be saved by drying, and may be kepi 

 another year. 



In some parts of the Western States, houses are erected for dry- 

 ing fruit, and are warmed by fire heat, by means of a furnace with * 

 flue extending around the building, similar to that formerly used foi 

 green-houses. This flue is covered with sheet iron. An ample ven- 

 tilator is placed at the top for the free escape of the large volumes: 

 of watery vapor which rise from the drying fruit. Trays or hurdles, 

 about two feet wide, six feet long, and three inches deep, with small 

 strips or laths forming the bottom, are placed in three tiers, one 

 above the other, with a foot or more of space between them. Long 

 strips of scantling, laid horizontally, extending the whole length of 

 the house, and six or eight feet outside, form a sort of railway track 

 on which a frame with rollers runs in and out through a wide door, 

 for running in the fresh fruit and bringing out the dried. A house, 

 ten by fourteen feet, and eight feet high, has been found sufficient 

 for about two barrels of fruit at a time, and about twenty-four hours 

 complete the drying process. 



