18 



BULLETIN 43, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



suming a usual yield of pods, a curing barn 20 feet square, with 

 18-foot posts and a high pitched roof, can by proper management 

 cure the peppers grown on a 10-acre field. This assumes such fea- 

 tures of construction as are described for increasing the floor surface 

 of the barn. 



The curing barn used in this work is a simple 4-walled building, 

 20 feet square, with 18-foot posts and a steeply pitched roof. (Fig. 

 8.) The tightly built Avails rise from the ground and there is no 

 floor. The barns are usually made with double walls in order better 

 to retain the heat. 



In one end of the building are two brick furnaces built 12 feet 

 apart. These furnaces (figs. 9 and 10, a) are semicircular in shape, 

 or archlike, and are T feet long, 2 feet high, and 2 feet in width. 



They are built on the 

 ground with about 18 

 inches extending out- 

 side the barn, 5^ feet 

 being inside (fig. 10). 

 From the interior end 

 of these furnaces sheet- 

 iron flues (6), 10 to 12 

 inches in diameter, ex- 

 tend along the side of 

 the house to within 2 

 feet of the opposite end 

 wall. Here by means 

 of elbows the flues are 

 carried to a point 2 

 feet short of the mid- 

 dle line, at which place, 

 again by means of elbows, the flues return to the first end of the barn 

 and after making another turn -pass out at a point just above the 

 furnace. The flues throughout their course are slightly ascending, 

 and the smoke which traverses them, with the hot air, is discharged 

 through a pipe (r) above the furnace. (Figs. and 10.) 



The crates to receive the peppers during the drying process con- 

 sisl of wire-bottomed trays 8 feet long, 30 inches wide, and 5 inches 

 deep. (Fig. 11.) To construct a crate, a rectangular wooden frame 

 8 feet long by 30 inches wide is made, using material 1 inch thick 

 and 2 inches wide. Midway between the ends a crosspiece is nailed 

 in order to strengthen the frame and support the wire. To this 

 frame the wire is tacked with small staples. The best wire to use is 

 the quarter-inch galvanized -iron kind, but if it is desirable to use 

 a cheaper quality the 16-mesh wire gauze can be used instead, 

 reducing the cost to about one-third the price of the stronger 



Fig. 8. — Curing barn used in drying paprika peppers. 



