126 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



of sulphur — sprinkle it with salt water, etc.. Why, that was tried with 

 lis twenty-two years ago and abandoned. You can't do it. Then 

 they say do it with driers — get steam driers and dry that wav. Whv, 

 with the amount of peaches that we have in our county, the idea of 

 building a drier big enough for any one that has a large orchard to 

 dry his fruit is simply ridiculous; you can't do it; and you can't dry 

 without sulphur. If you sulphur it, it will dry ; it will dry very much 

 faster after sulphur. That would leave the poor man with ten or twenty 

 acres at the mercy of the larger ones, the same as we are at the mercy 

 of the packers now. We can't dry fast enough so that we can dry ail 

 of the fruit there unless every one dries his own, and they must make 

 preparation to dry their own instead of getting it dried by others. 

 The idea of drying in that way is simply ridiculous. 



In my boyhood days they dried principally apples. They put them 

 on strings and hung them in the house. We had fireplaces then. Of 

 course the flies and insects got at the drying fruit, and I don't think 

 it made it very much better to use than our sulphur. Still, they want to 

 force us to that. 



In the case of Dr. Wiley's idea of drying in dry houses by steam, 

 he tried it Avith apples. Apples are cut in thin strips and dry very 

 easily and quickly. You can dry apples without sulphur, and they will 

 look fairly w^ell, and people buy them; but when it comes to peaches, 

 they can not be dried without sulphur. I have a sample that was given 

 me by a gentleman w^ho made an affidavit that it took four weeks to 

 dry it. It was given me to take to Washington. It was the culls that 

 they would not take at the cannery all summer, and he dried them 

 without sulphur, and it took him four weeks. I have his affidavit to 

 that effect, and he said, "Take it there, and have it cooked by the side 

 of some of your own and pass it over to these scientific men, and I 

 w^ill guarantee vre will have no trouble, because you can't dry this fruit 

 without sulphur and have it all perfect. A great deal of it will be in 

 such shape that we don't want to use it." 



Now, as Professor Wickson is here, I Avould like to hear from him. 

 Our time is short, and I don't want to take up the time of any other 

 speaker. Jt is very interesting to us to hear the papers, and I will 

 call on Professor Wickson to close this discussion. 



PROFESSOR WICKSON. Mr. Hutchinson did not tell me that I 

 was to be called, and he has not told me yet what I am to speak about. 

 He did make the general statement that I was to back him up, and I 

 will do that all right. But he doesn't need that any more than 

 Mr. Briggs needs it, so my speech will be exceedingly short. 



The statement which Mr. Briggs has made covering his wide study 

 and energetic action in behalf of the dried fruit interests of California, 

 needs no backing up. It speaks for itself. Islv. Hutchinson is a man 

 who speaks from a quarter of a century of actual experience in the 

 handling of dried fruits by the sulphur process. Their deeds and their 

 works need no support whatever from me. I will only say that it is 

 very difficult to exaggerate the importance of the use of sulphur in 

 California. This practice is a survival, as Mr. Hutchinson intimated, 

 of a third of a century of actual and earnest endeavor to find somethina" 

 else. Fruit growers don't want to sulphur their fruit. It is a lot of 



