16 DEHYDEATION OF FEUITS AND VEGETABLES. 



Japanese sulphurs. There is one sulphur in Japan, the Bongo, 

 that is comparatively free from arsenic. But it all has arsenic in it, 

 even after it has been rffined, and to my mind too much of it. 



The Chairman. Can you tell us what has been the experience of 

 the English Government with reference to the number of drying 

 operations they have in use? 



Mr. HoRST. The official records that come through our Food Ad- 

 ministration — any they give the information as coming through our 

 War Department — is to the effect that England uses for its armies 

 100 pounds of dried vegetables for 6,000 portions of vegetable soup, 

 and that they feed the vegetable soup to the soldiers five or six days 

 a week, and with that ration fhey keep them in first-class health. 

 The British Government has bought in Canada since the war com- 

 menced, in round figures, 44,000,000 pounds of mixed dried vege- 

 tables and potatoes. On top of that they have secured large sup- 

 plies in England, where they have converted many of the hop kilns 

 into vegetable drying plants, and I believe they have put up other 

 vegetable drying plants. 



Senator Noreis. Take an apple. I suppose we are all more or less 

 familiar with dried apples. Will your process dry an apple so that 

 it would be as good as a fresh apple ? 



Mr. HoRST. It will dry it so that it will be as good as a fresh apple 

 cooked. 1 do not say that any product that is dried and soaked in 

 water again is going to be as good as fresh, if eaten uncooked. 



Senator Norris. How will it comparfe with the dried apple we are 

 all familiar with, that we used to dry in the sun? 



Mr. HoBST. It will be far better than a dried apple that has been 

 dried in the sun, because the apple drying in the sun takes too long 

 a time to dry and becomes damaged in the too slow drying. 



Senator Ransdell. Will the apple dried bv this process make prac- 

 tically as good apple pies as the fresh apple f 



Mr. HoRST. Substantially as good; yes. The apples dried by this 

 process bring in the wholesale market 3 cents a pound more than 

 apples dried in the sun, and when I left San Francisco one of the 

 largest stores in that city, the Emporium, a department store, was 

 selling Oregon dried apples, dried by this same process or similar to 

 this process, and getting 45 cents a pound for them in 1-pound car- 

 tons as against the wholesale price of about 16 cents for the ordinary 

 dried apple. 



Senator Norris. One pound of those dried apples would be equiva- 

 lent to about how many pounds of fresh apples ? 



Mr. HoRST. I have not the conversion figures in my mind now on 

 apples. I have been working almost entirely upon vegetables, and I 

 can give you almost all the conversions on vegetables offhand. 



Senator Ransdell. Are there any grocery stores in Washington 

 handling these dried products ? 



Mr. HoRST. No, sir ; not yet. The handling of the products is the 

 difficult part of the situation, and it is for that reason I was asked 

 to come on to Washington to try to interest the Government in two 

 things : First, for our Army to adopt dried vegetables, and, second, 

 for our food authorities to make a propaganda so that the people will 

 know what the products are; that is, to make whatever public tests 

 are necessary to demonstrate the value of the product, and then have 



