CURED FRUIT NOT A BY-PRODUCT 



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a limited extent, save from loss fruit which shippers and canners are 

 not at the time paying profitable prices for, and it is true also that 

 the recourse to curing frees growers from helpless dependence upon 

 fresh fruit buyers. But this does not mean that curing is a way 

 of getting something from refuse fruit, not suited for other purposes. 

 It should be taken as evidence that, for the most part, grades of 

 fruit which are cured are the same which are also available for 

 higher uses when prices are right. It is very important in many 

 ways to have it clearly understood that, except to an insignificant 

 extent, California fruit drying is not undertaken to save wastes or 

 to get something from fruit which is not suited to higher uses. 



Second. As our cured fruits are a primary and not a by-product, 

 it becomes intelligible why such free investment is made in acres of 

 well-made trays; in tramways and turntables for their movement 

 from the shelter of convenient cutting or dipping and spreading 

 houses; in capacious apartments and mechanical devices for giving 

 the cut fruit its bath in sulphur fumes to preserve natural colors and 

 to prevent fermentation and insect invasion ; in the carefully pre- 

 pared drying floors ; in well-fitted packing houses. Such investment 

 has reached millions of dollars in the aggregate, and the standing of 

 cured fruits as primary products is the justification of such outlay. 



Third. The provision of such equipment is not alone evidence 

 of the standing of the industry ; it constitutes an obligation upon 

 producers to put out a product which shall be true to its opportunity 

 as a primary product, and not merely a makeshift to prevent loss or 

 waste. Thirty years ago California dried fruit was a makeshift, and 

 a disgracefully poor one. As enterprise and investment proceeded 

 it was soon seen that style and quality alone could requite them. 

 Next it was discerned that fruit for curing, to command profitable 

 prices, must be as good as fruit for any other high purpose, as has 

 been suggested. It was then believed that to secure handsome 

 cured fruit which should only be relieved of its excess of water and 

 still retain color, flavor and winning beauty, could only be produced 

 in machine-evaporators with artificial heat, and a few years were 

 given to invention, purchase and rejection of all such devices except 

 as occasional refuges when the California climate forgets itself. 

 When the demonstration came that with proper pre-treatment 

 California sunshine and dry air would produce notably fine evap- 

 orated fruits without houses and furnaces, cured fruits entered upon 

 their career as primary products, and planting to produce them 

 began. 



Fourth. The obligations upon producers, to make their output 

 worthy of such standing, extend to the whole process of growing 

 and curing. The fruit must be well grown, and fruit for curing 

 should have size and quality which make it first class for other pur- 



