28 DEHYDRATION OF rEXJITS AND VEGETABLES. 



of drying machines used by the Germans. There were the large class, 

 very expensive affairs running into the hundreds of thousands of 

 dollars; there were smaller plants, community plants, costing as 

 low, as say, $5,000 to $10,000 ; and then there were itinerant dryers. 



The Chairman. What would the itinerant outfit cost, probably? 



Mr. Fairchild. When we came to investigate the itinerant, we 

 found there were many features of it which seemed impracticable. 

 The space required for the drying and the time required to dry put 

 it in a very different category from the thrashing machine with 

 which we are very familiar. In other words, a thrashing machine 

 would thrash the product from 100 acres in a very short time, 

 whereas an itinerant dryer would have to spend the whole sum- 

 mer on that 100-acre field. So we concentrated our attention, in the 

 first place, on the home dryer, and there were sent out to house- 

 holders of this country literally millions of descriptions of home 

 dryers, and a great deal of home drying was done, and I have here 

 samples of some of the good home drying products. There is no 

 question but what home drying has its place, but home drying, as 

 I see it, never will and never can supplj- the city man at the height 

 of the season in the hotels, in the restaurants, and eating places with 

 a standardized product such as he will have to have. Consequently, 

 the question of supplying the cities has naturally come forward, 

 brought up by commercial concerns, the names of which Mr. Sweet 

 lias given you, who have- attempted to go into this field that is 

 opening. 



In order to make the cost low enough, the plant has to be large 

 enough to utilize fully the overhead expenses. The costs of drying 

 I can not give you as accurately as I wish I could, nor have I been 

 able to get at the cost of drying as accurately as it should be deter- 

 mined. There are manj' complicated factors in the situation. 



Senator Smith of Georgia. It necessarily varies according to the 

 size of the plant '. 



Mr. Fairciiild. And the cost of the labor. 



Senator Smith of Georgia. The cost of the labor and the cost of 

 the fuel? 



Mr. Fairchild. Certainly. 



Senator Smith of Georgia. And filling your plant, and filling it 

 and filling it — continuous work. 



Mr. Fairchild. Continuous work. 



Senator Smith of Georgia. You could put a plant down in the 

 southern part of my State, could you not, where sweet potatoes are 

 very cheap, and you could get in that section such vast quantities 

 of sweet potatoes always accessible that yon coidd run a dryer very 

 much more econouiically than where you could not just take one 

 product and put it through as fast as you could move it. There you 

 could reduce the cost to the minimum. 



Mr. Fairchild. Senator, I have been particularly attracted by the 

 sweet potato possibilities. They are indeed perfectly tremendous. 

 When you consider that the sweet potato requires 15 per cent less 

 potash to grow than the Irish potato, that it requires much less nitro- 

 gen than the Irish potato; that it grows on sandy lands, where you 

 can not successfully grow corn — it grows in the region of the cheapest 

 labor that we have in the United States; it is a crop wholly under- 

 stood by the colored man of the South. It is not limited by the 



