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growers have learned one thing, not to pick the prunes from the trees, and 

 they have learned not to pick them from the ground; they have learned 

 that they can drive in between the trees with a sled or a little low truck 

 with a sheet attached to the box, and shake them right into the box; that 

 saves a vast expense. They are then carried to the shed where we assort 

 them, placed on a platform, and then dipped in lye for about a minute, 

 enough to crack the skin very slightly so as to make them dry out quickly; 

 then they have two ways of putting them on the trays; one is to have a 

 bucket, which Mr. Fleming has patented, the bottom of which drops right 

 out and puts the fruit on the tray; the better way is to hang your pail like 

 the old fashioned bucket, so as to distribute them handily; they should be 

 dipped in lye which is boiling hot, and then dipped into cold water, and 

 carried out on trucks into the field. This year I noticed where some driers 

 have posts driven into the ground and temporary frames made where the 

 trays are placed up from the ground; some think that they dry a little 

 better that way, and then these trays are piled up every night, three or four 

 high. The highest priced prunes we have ever grown in Santa Clara 

 County have been treated in this way. They put glycerine on them, which 

 is said to be the cheapest substance, or some coating of liquid sugar, or 

 something, and some of our smallest were sold for the highest price, where 

 they were put in tins, and labels on with the name of the ranch; I think 

 some were sold for 20 cents a pound, and I was told by good authority that 

 a man could sell a hundred carloads of that kind of prunes; I suppose on 

 the same principle that Mr. Cooper sells his oil. It was suggested to me 

 to-day not to dip prunes in lye at all, but after they were dried and 

 shriveled up, to steam them a little if you want to bring out that full 

 plump appearance of a prune, and make it look nice. 



Mr. Hatch: There are several things in relation to fruit drying I would 

 like to call attention to: first, in the last two years there has been more 

 advance in fruit drying in California than had ever been made in all the 

 days that are past, but yet we have improvements to make. I think Mr. 

 Smith's remarks cover nearly the ground, and being by a man who has 

 had a great deal of experience should have great weight, but I desire to 

 refer to some things that have come to me in advance of the methods 

 adopted by myself this year. I have shipped a little more than one hun- 

 dred and ninety tons of dried fruit from my place; most of it was very good, 

 but nearly all might have been better. First, the cutting of fruit could 

 not have been better explained than by what Mr. Smith said; the fruit 

 must be ripe to make good fruit after it is dry; now a good many of us in 

 cutting peaches or apricots do not cut clear around the fruit with the knife. 

 They cut part way and tear it open, as it is a little quicker; some do not 

 go to that extent — they let the two halves cling together. To make a nice 

 dried peach or apricot the knife should circle the whole of the peach and 

 make it in two halves, lay each piece with the cup up, not, as many do, 

 edgeways to get more on the tray. It not only spoils the shape of that 

 piece of fruit, but you put that tray in the sulphur chest and the sulphur 

 seems to start the juice, and you will find that that juice is very plentiful 

 on the tray and in your sulphur chest; it is the juice of the fruit we wish 

 to save, and if you lose it you lose weight and therefore profit. It costs a 

 little more to do as I 'have suggested than when you put it on edge, but we 

 save that in weight and in appearance of the fruit. As to sulphuring, some 

 think that forty minutes or longer is too much; it cost me several thousand 

 dollars to find out that ten or fifteen minutes was not nearly enough. I had 

 been impressed with the idea that ten minutes at the outside was enough to 

 bleach peaches or apricots, and I submitted them for ten minutes, and 



