THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS* COX^TEXTIOX. 



125 



MR. HUTCHINSON. I will take very little of your time. I would 

 like to have Professor Wickson follow me. I am nothing but a practical 

 grower, and I would like to be backed up by people who are better 

 posted on the theories. 



To say that we were surprised and alarmed when this question first 

 came up under the Pure Food Law. and that the use of sulphur in 

 the drying of fruit had been attacked, goes without question. We 

 were as much alarmed as you people here were when the tariff question 

 uas up. and you wanted a tariff on oranges equal to what it was or 

 better. We, of course, took every measure that was possible to find out 

 what they were going to do and how we were going to get out of it, as 

 v.e could not dry our fruit according to the ruling. It is an im- 

 possibility. 



I shall only talk to you in a practical manner. I have been in the 

 business twenty-three years — drying fruit — and I have tried all the 

 different processes of drying, and I have found none that we could 

 rely on. except the sulphuring of fruit as we do it now. That there 

 are some who abuse it we are willing to admit, as well as you are 

 willing to admit that some of your oranges are not picked and brought 

 into the packing house as they ought to be. We have some careless men 

 who make a great deal of trouble, but if the fruit is sulphured as it 

 should be and proper care taken, with the owner in charge and doing 

 It himself, without leaving it to some Chinaman or irresponsible person, 

 we can show you fruit that is acceptable and will be eaten by anybody 

 without any danger of being injured by it. Of course there are some 

 people who sulphur their fruit too much — some that put it in care- 

 lessly and leave it all night, which is very wrong. We don't eat dried 

 fruit raw : we don 't take it as it comes from the producer and eat it that 

 Avay. It is cooked, and after it is cooked there is no sulphur to amount 

 to anything left. This we have demonstrated, having those who were 

 strongly opposed to us get the analysis of it after it was cooked, and 

 we never had any trouble after that. 



You have many ways here to get rid of your scale and of your insects 

 of all kinds — more trouble than we have in our part of the State, but 

 we have our troubles, too. Correct sulphuring of fruit, as I have 

 demonstrated, is not to leave it in the sulphur house more than two or 

 three hours. Some men buy the cheapest of sulphur, and it will go out 

 and won't burn. You can't expect to get an even grade with that, 

 and you don't get it. But where they will use as near the right amount 

 of sulphur as is possible, it is all right. Some days it takes more 

 sulphur than it does other days, and you have got to be there all the 

 time to look after it carefully. Never leave it in the sulphur house as 

 long as three or four hours. It is not necessary. The sulphur will 

 take in a few hours well, if it is good sulphur, then take the fruit out 

 and spread it. 



Our peaches we are obliged to put out into the sun. We do that. 

 The' sun does aU the w'ork. It is not necessary to build these expensive 

 buildings to dry by artificial heat. We have been asking all the time 

 for some other way to dry our fruit that would be within the law 

 as they have it. We don't want to break the law. We don't want to 

 be complainers. We have asked it. but we have never got an answer. 

 We have been told by Dr. Wiley the way of doing it with salt instead 



