357 
The yield of dried apples evaporated to a water content of 
25 per cent., varies from 12lb. to 16lb. per 100lb. of fresh fruit, the 
sweeter autumn apples yielding better than the summer varieties, 
as a class low in total solids and in sugar. 
When sufficiently dried for the sweat-box the fruit still contains 
more moisture than the finished article is to have. The slices should 
be pliable; when fresh eut no moisture can be pressed out, but 
they should be slightly sticky, and a handful of slices pressed into a 
ball in the hand should separate at once when released. 
Fics 
are picked when quite ripe, and when they commence to shrivel; 
the stalk should be left on them. The practice is to shake the 
branches vigorously; the figs are placed in perforated buckets and 
dipped up and down in a solution, brought up to boiling point, of 
salt, 30z. to each gallon of water. This cleans the figs, hastens the 
drying, and softens the skin. After dipping they are spread on 
trays in single layers, the eye pointing up to prevent the syrup 
treacling out during the first day or two of drying. They do not 
dry very evenly, and after exposure to the sun for six to ten days, 
during which they are turned once, the dry ones are removed, and 
those not yet ready allowed to remain longer. 
Black figs are not sulphured, whereas white ones are improved 
in colour by bleaching. If too syrupy inside, and when the juice 
oozes at the eye, as occurs with some varieties, the eye is slightly 
raised for a day or two until the juice thickens. Figs should not 
be dried too hard; this is the cause of tough skins. If on examina- 
tion no juice oozes out of the eye, and the fruit has a slightly 
leathery feeling, it is ready to go into the sweat-box, where it is 
turned over every few days, the skin becoming moist and pliable 
during the curing process. After coming out of the sweating 
boxes, after 10 to 12 days, and before packing, they are softened 
by dipping into boiling brine or hot syrup. A 214 per cent. solu- 
tion of salt, or 40z. to the gallon of water; the over-dried figs or 
“floaters” being removed, the remainder being placed on trays a 
couple of inches deep and dried for a day or so. Previous to pack- 
ing into boxes, neatly lined with paraffin paper, they are sorted, 
moulded under a screw press, and packed in layers with stalks 
facing alternately all one way and then the reverse. Pressure is 
applied to keep out inseets and prevent the fruit drying excessively. 
Three to four lbs. of ripe figs yield one of dry. 
Thorough cultivation, manuring with potassic and phosphatic 
and lime fertilisers, and, where necessary, one irrigation a month 
before the fruit ripens, ensure finer fruit. 
Sometimes dipping is dispensed with, and the fruit dried with 
the bloom on; the operation then takes longer. 
