EVAPORATION OF APPLES 
The objects to be obtained by turning 
must be kept in mind and the fruit 
handled accordingly. It should be ex- 
amined from time to time and turned 
often enough to prevent scorching or 
sticking and to insure uniform drying. 
In the case of the tower evaporators and 
other types in which the fruit is handled 
on racks, no turning more than an occa- 
sional stirring of the fruit with the hand 
or with a small wooden paddle is re- 
quired. Sometimes the relative positions 
of the racks are changed to make the dry- 
ing more uniform. This is one reason 
why the tower-dried fruit is generally of 
rather better quality than that from kilns. 
The repeated turning on the kiln floor is 
likely to make the fruit more or less 
“mussy,” while in that which remains 
practically undisturbed on the racks the 
rings are maintained in better condition. 
The fruit also dries more quickly, and is 
often of better color than the kiln-evapor- 
ated product, and hence is more attractive 
in appearance. 
The same general principles must be ob- 
served in tending the fruit where steam 
heat is used in place of direct hot air from 
furnaces. 
Time Required for Drying 
The time necessary for drying fruit de- 
pends upon several factors. The more im- 
portant are: Type of evaporator; depth 
to which fruit is spread; method of pre- 
paring—whether sliced, quartered, or 
whole; temperature maintained; condi- 
tions of the weather, and, to a certain 
extent, the construction of the evaporator. 
The application of these several factors 
to the point in question readily follows. A 
good kiln evaporator should dry a floor of 
slices, other things being equal, in about 
twelve hours, ten to fourteen hours being 
the range of variation. Where the fruit 
is handled on racks the time required is 
much shorter, but conditions are quite dif- 
ferent from the kilns, as the fruit is sel- 
dom more than one or two inches thick on 
the racks. For slices, five hours is con- 
sidered a reasonable time, with a range of 
four to six hours. 
It is estimated that quarters Will require 
from eighteen to twenty-four hours in the 
average kiln, while the time for whole ap- 
931 
ples will range from thirty-six to forty- 
eight hours. 
If the atmospheric conditions are 
heavy and damp, the drying is retarded. 
Under some conditions it is hardly possi- 
ble to thoroughly dry the fruit. During 
Windy weather also it is more difficult 
to regulate the heat, especially if the 
walls are poorly constructed so that the 
draft of cold air into the furnace room 
can not be controlled. This applies espe- 
cially to kilns heated by furnaces. It 
is claimed that steam-heated evaporators 
are less subject to the influence of cli- 
matic conditions. 
When Is the Fruit Dry? 
Perhaps there is no step in the entire 
process that requires better trained judg- 
ment than the matter of determining 
when the fruit is sufficiently dried to 
meet the requirements. Like several 
other steps in the process it is largely 
a matter of experience, though there are 
certain general features which are capa- 
ble of being reduced to words. 
The fruit should be so dry that when 
a handful of slices is pressed together 
firmly into a ball the slices will be 
“springy” enough to separate at once 
upon being released from the hand. In 
this condition there will be no fruit, or 
only an occasional piece, that has any 
visible moisture on the surface. In a 
slice of average dryness, it should not 
be possible to press any free juice into 
view in a freshly made cross section of 
it. The general “feel” of the fruit, as it 
is handled, should be a soft, velvety, 
leathery texture. 
The foregoing should represent as 
nearly as possible the average condition, 
but it cannot be expected to be absolutely 
uniform throughout. Some slices—they 
should constitute only a very small per- 
centage—will still plainly possess some 
of the juice of the apple; others—like- 
wise, properly only a small proportion— 
will be entirely too dry, possibly dry 
enough to be brittle. 
The Curing Room 
When a quantity of fruit is considered 
dry enough, it is removed from the kiln 
and put in a pile on the floor of the 
