142 GARDENING FOR ALL. 
with great advantage for the purpose of bleaching the rings. 
The first tray remains in the position just mentioned until 
the second tray is ready—which will be in four or five minutes 
—to be placed under the first tray; the third tray is then 
filled in the usual manner and placed under the second tray, 
and when the fourth tray is ready the first three trays are 
pushed forward in the flue, and the fourth tray takes the 
place of No. 1, and so on until the top flue is full. 
‘‘On the arrival of the first tray at the upper end of 
the flue the contents are examined, and those which are 
sufficiently dried are removed, and the remainder turned over 
and returned down the lower and cooler flue. In many 
cases one tray will hold the whole of the contents (which are 
nearly dried) of two or three trays, the empty ones being 
taken away to be again filled with fresh fruit. 
‘‘ The degree of heat used for drying apples is from 175° 
to 240° Fahrenheit ; and the time occupied varies from two 
to four hours, according to the variety of the apple, but from 
two to two-and-a-half hours is the usual time. Whole apples 
require a much longer time, eight to ten hours, according to 
size and variety. 
“Plums are dried in the same manner except that they 
are placed in the evaporator at once. They should be 
graded according to size and be uniformly ripe. During the 
process of evaporation plums ought to be removed from the 
evaporator once or twice for the purpose of cooling them and 
toughening the skin and so prevent bursting, which they are 
liable to do because the skin does not allow the moisture in 
the fruit to freely escape when first placed in the machine. 
As soon as the plums commence to shrivel all danger of 
bursting is past, and they may then remain in the evaporator 
until dry, The time required for plums is from eight to ten 
hours. Plums may be steamed for a few minutes and then 
split in half, thus entirely dispensing with the cooling process 
and considerably reducing the length of time required in 
drying. 
‘Apricots are dried in the same manner as plums but 
without the cooling, and they should be split in halves before 
being placed in the evaporator. 
‘‘ Peaches should first be peeled and then treated 
similarly to apricots. 
