140 GARDENING FoR ALL. 
Perhaps the whole modus operandi of fruit drying may 
best be given in Mr. Trotter’s own words, and this is what 
he says :-— 
“In the following remarks I shall endeavour to give a 
clear description of an evaporating machine and the method 
of working the same successfully in this country. These 
statements are based upon practical experience, the writer 
having used The American Evaporator (Dr. Ryde’s 
Patent) No. 2 during the past four years, and been awarded 
twenty-two prizes, including seven gold and silver medals, 
which fact will speak for itself respecting the excellence of 
the articles produced under the method hereafter described. 
‘Fruit drying, or, more properly, fruit evaporation, as a 
means of utilising surplus fruit in a plentiful year is an 
industry of great importance. American fruit-growers, like 
ourselves, have suffered from the evil of glutted markets, and 
have, with characteristic energy, applied themselves to solve 
the difficulty of utilising their surplus fruit in such a way as 
to turn every pound of it to profitable use and of monetary 
value, with the result that fruit drying has beeu an industry 
in that country for more than twenty years. It is a method 
whereby fruit, &c., can be cheaply preserved in a good and 
saleable condition for several years, thus making the producer 
independent (to a certain extent) of the circumstances of time 
and place, and enabling him to place his fruit upon the 
market at the most suitable and advantageous times and 
securing better prices. 
‘‘ There are several ways of attaining this end. In this 
country we must use some apparatus for the purpose, but in 
more favoured climes sun drying is still in use; and even 
there the system of artificial evaporation, or evaporation by 
the aid of machinery, is making headway. The same may 
be said of kiln-dried produce, neither of which will bear 
comparison with properly evaporated fruit, because they are 
in an entirely different chemical condition and altogether 
inferior in quality. Evaporated fruit will keep longer, is less 
acid, more wholesome, and glucose or fruit sugar is formed 
and retained, whilst in the old process of slow drying it is 
entirely lost. All animal and vegetable life is killed by the 
new process. 
