272 The Fruit-Growers Guide-Book 



always advisable in sun-drying to have the fruit cov- 

 ered with a thin screen that is raised an inch or so above 

 the fruit to protect it from being spoiled by insects. It is 

 impossible, or at least difficult, to protect sun-dried fruit 

 from dust. This is one of the most serious objections to 

 this manner of drying fruit, as the dust is always full of 

 germs of many kinds. 



Artificial evaporators of convenient size may be had 

 for home use, and are simple to construct and operate. A 

 kitchen cook stove is serviceable for small quantities, and 

 there are some evaporators on the market for use in this 

 way. However, the principle of these evaporators is to 

 support the fruit over a vessel containing hot water in such 

 manner that the fruit will not be cooked nor bathed by the 

 steam, but dried by a continuous flow of dry air. A wire 

 screen supported over a bake pan that is covered will an- 

 swer the purpose. 



Portable evaporators for use in the orchard and capable 

 of handling five or ten bushels of fruit a day are easily 

 constructed, or may be bought ready for use. They con- 

 sist of a sheet iron stove over which is a box holding sev- 

 eral trays on which the sliced fruit is spread. These trays 

 are made of slats of wood, or galvanized iron screens. The 

 top and bottom of the box is provided with openings that 

 will allow of free passage of air over the fruit. 



For market it is often customary to bleach the fruit 

 with the fumes of sulphur in order to keep it white and 

 produce what is sometimes believed to be a more pleasing 

 appearance. However, as the bleaching causes the fruit 

 to absorb more or less of sulphurous acid, it is rendered 

 deleterious to the health. For home use bleaching should 

 not be done. 



Where considerable quantities of fruit are to be evap- 

 orated some of the simple paring and slicing machines that 

 are operated by hand will facilitate preparing the fruit. 

 But where large quantities are to be handled a power ma- 

 chine will give better service. There are such machines 

 on the market that are capable of paring as much as 400 

 bushels of apples a day. 



