98 BUSH-FRUITS 



be borne in mind, when building, that the stacks themselves 

 should occupy a comparatively small part of the establishment; 

 that is, the room needed for storage and working much exceeds 

 that needed for the drying towers. The Bush establishment, 

 shown in Figs. 16, 19, 20, 21, is 24x36 feet, with sixteen-foot 

 posts, three solid brick stacks thirty- eight feet high, and stone 

 basements well finished throughout, and cost $1,400. This estab- 

 lishment has a capacity of about 1,000 bushels of apples a week. 



"The tray most commonly used in Wayne county is a frame 

 four feet one inch square, covered with wire screen which has a 

 mesh about one -fifth or one -fourth inch wide. Such a tray re- 

 ceives about sixteen quarts of berries at each filling. A stack of 

 the capacity of Mr. Bush's holds twenty-five trays, so that the 

 stack has from twelve to thirteen bushels of berries, measured 

 when fresh, when it is full. Mr. Hair spreads from twenty-four 

 to thirty quarts of berries upon his five-by-five foot trays. Under 

 ordinary conditions, with heat about 200F. at the bottom tray, 

 these trays may be moved up that is, fresh berries inserted 

 every ten minutes. A twenty-five tray stack, therefore, would be 

 discharged in about four to five hours. The operator will soon 

 find, however, that the time required to finish the fruit varies with 

 many conditions and with the variety of berry. In moist weather 

 and with the first pickings, more time is required because the 

 fruit is plump and juicy. For the later pickings and in dry 

 times, the evaporation may be completed in half the time re- 

 quired for the plump berries. The Ohio raspberry also dries 

 quicker than most other common varieties. It is, therefore, often 

 necessary to ' strip ' the trays ; that is, to take out five or six or 

 more trays at once, rather than to wait for each one to come out 

 in its appointed turn. A test made by myself in one of the best 

 evaporators of the state, finished Gregg raspberries in four hours. 

 The trays were filled with twenty-four quarts at 11 A. M., with 

 bottom heat 175 and top heat (at upper trays) 100, the outside 

 temperature being 74. The fruit came out at 3 P. M., and meas- 

 ured ten quarts to the tray. 



#***#**** 

 "The staple variety of blackcaps for evaporating is the Ohio, 



