EVAPORATION OF FRUITS. 19 



of keeping the operators of paring machines supplied with fruit at 

 all times is also a necessity. 



The washing tank should be located outside and at one end of the 

 building, at a distance of 10 to 12 feet. It should be so placed that 

 fruit may be unloaded directly into it and should be sufficiently large 

 to receive an ordinary wagonload at one time. A length of 6 feet, 

 with a breadth and depth each of 4 feet, is a good size. The tank 

 should be placed with the end, rather than the side, toward the build- 

 ing. It should be provided with a faucet for supplying water, and a 

 large plug should be placed near the bottom to facilitate draining and 

 cleaning. 



From the washing tank the apples should be carried by a power- 

 driven bucket-and-chain conveyor to the grader on the second floor of 

 the building. This conveyor, like all others used in apple-drying 

 plants, is made of a standard separable-link chain obtainable in a 

 great variety of sizes and styles of links suited to various purposes. 

 For making conveyors to carry materials in a horizontal plane, the 

 type of link employed is one to which a hardwood slat is attached, the 

 slats forming a flexible belt. For lifting materials vertically, or up 

 an incline, the belt is made up of slats, as in the first case, but at in- 

 tervals of 12 to 18 inches there are inserted special links to which 

 "buckets" made of two wooden pieces of suitable width, nailed 

 together to form an L-shaped trough, are attached. Link-belt chain 

 of suitable sizes is carried by practically all the larger supply houses, 

 and the wooden parts are readily made and attached by an ordinary 

 workman. The conveyor runs in a flat trough 10 or 12 inches wide 

 and 4 or 5 inches deep, supported by a trestle, and the belt returns 

 beneath the trough. The upper end of the conveyor passes through 

 the wall of the building at a point 8 to 10 feet above the second-floor 

 level and delivers directly into the hopper of the grader. The lower 

 end extends almost to the bottom of the tank, thus enabling the con- 

 veyor to remove practically all apples from the tank without atten- 

 tion, while at the same time acting as a stirrer to assist the washing. 

 The inclination of the conveyor to the building prevents the dropping 

 of fruit, while the open construction of the buckets allows the fruit 

 to drain thoroughly before entering the building. 



All that is necessary by way of grading is that the fruit be sepa- 

 rated into sizes, each of which shall contain fruits varying not more 

 than one-half inch in diameter, as paring machines are so constructed 

 that they may be adjusted to handle fruit with this amount of varia- 

 tion in size. A good plan is to adjust the grader to separate into five 

 sizes, the first of these consisting of fruits measuring 3J inches or 

 more in diameter, the second of those measuring 3 to 34 inches, the 

 third of 24 to 3 inches, the fourth of 2^ to 24 inches, and the fifth 

 including all fruits measuring less than 2^ inches. These last are 

 run into a separate bin to be pressed for juice or made into chops, as 

 they are too small to be profitably worked up into white stock. The 

 other sizes should be kept separate, so that each size may be delivered 

 to machines adjusted for peeling that particular size. This may be 

 accomplished by placing the storage bin in the corner of the second- 

 floor workroom and placing the grader directly over it. so that the 

 fruit of each size drops into a separate compartment, or by placing 

 the grader at one side of the bin and arranging chutes through which 



