﻿EVAPORATION OF FRUITS. 45 



stock, and less turning is necessary during drying. Chops and waste 

 are usually dried to a considerably lower moisture content than white 

 stock, and are quite frequently packed into burlap bags as soon as they 

 are taken from the kiln. It is generally estimated that about one- 

 third as much space is required to dry the parings and trimmings as 

 is demanded for the " white fruit." 5 



" Waste " and " chops " are generally bleached, but are never passed 

 through the bleacher which is used for the white fruit. Where they 

 are dried in kilns, which is usually the case, a common way of bleach- 

 ing is to burn the sulphur in the furnace room after the stock has 

 been spread on the floor. 



It is generally estimated that the waste from a given quantity of 

 apples will pay the cost of the fuel for evaporating that quantity of 

 fruit; that is, putting it on a bushel basis, the waste from a bushel 

 will pay for fuel to evaporate both the white fruit and the waste 

 from that bushel. While in some instances, when the price of such 

 stock is low, this estimate may be too high, it not infrequently hap- 

 pens that it more than pays for the fuel. 



PEACHES. 



ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS. 



At the present time an important economic factor enters into the 

 general proposition of drying or evaporating peaches in the widely 

 distributed peach-producing regions of the country. 



For a number of years, which extended from the late seventies to 

 the early nineties, large quantities of peaches were evaporated in 

 Delaware and perhaps in some of the other older peach-growing re- 

 gions. Twenty years or more ago one of the largest peach growers 

 in the Fort Valley section of Georgia undertook to evaporate some 

 of his fruit, but after operating a season or two the effort was aban- 

 doned as impracticable under existing conditions. For the past 25 

 years, however, practically no peaches have been evaporated for com- 

 mercial purposes in this country outside of California. The reasons 

 for this are largely economic. The peach-growing regions in the 

 humid parts of the country are located more advantageously, as a 

 rule, than are the peach-growing sections of California, with regard 

 to the large consuming centers for the fresh fruit. This fact, of 

 course, has to do with the logical working out of the best methods 

 of disposing of the crop in different regions. 



It is also true that the drying of peaches in California on a com- 

 mercial scale is confined to a few varieties which are especially high 

 in their solid content and hence give a larger yield of dry product 

 than do the varieties grown in the humid regions. 



Perhaps the most potent factors in the economics of the case, and 

 especially at the present time, are relative cost of drying and relative 

 selling price of the product. In all humid regions the first cost of 

 the evaporator and the cost of fuel must be added to the expense of 

 operation, in comparison with drying in California, since in that 

 State peaches are dried, with few if any exceptions commercially. 



5 " White fruit " is a general term used by operators and dealers to denote the grades 

 used for culinary purposes, in distinction from " waste," which comprises the parings and 

 trimmings, and " chops," which are composed of the apples that are too small to pare 

 or are otherwise defective. 



