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ladies appear there when they are at that work. You go to some other 

 places where the Chinamen are and you will think that the hogs had been 

 there, and were there yet. I do not know about the picking of fruit, 

 whether we have got past the Chinamen yet — I have not yet. I don't 

 know whether I will get along without them in gathering my fruit, for I 

 have been accustomed to have them for several years, and they understand 

 how I want my work done. When we want the most help is right in harvest 

 time, and then there is a great portion we only want for a few days. I don't 

 know how we can do that — I hope some one will explain how we can get 

 along without them. So far we have been much better pleased by the work 

 done by whites than the others, so much so that we decided to try and get 

 along without the Chinese next year in the handling and drying of fruit. 

 I think Mr. Smith said we must discard peeling peaches with lye. That 

 is true; not because you can't do it and do it well and make a beautiful 

 fruit without any flavor of the lye whatever, but because so few have con- 

 veniences to do it that way, and, endeavoring to do it without the con- 

 veniences, spoil the fruit. The dried peaches, year before last, which we 

 peeled, were beautiful and had the finest flavor of any dried peaches we 

 have ever eaten. This year I did not have the same success; the reason 

 was it was a dry year and the creek ran low, for I have always said that 

 if you peel with lye you must have a river of water to rinse your fruit in, 

 and never dip it in the same water. Except under those circumstances 

 you cannot have them of good color and free from the taste of the lye, 

 and without a great quantity of water you had better let the lye alone. 

 As to packing, we, as a rule, invariably take the best fruit, sort it out 

 from the pile, and face our fruit; well, that is all right, providing there is 

 none under that is much inferior. This year, in sending samples, I sent a 

 sample of what I would* put on for the facing and a sample of the filling, 

 with instructions to send samples that would be a little inferior to what it 

 would be when put up. Well, the result was satisfactory — no rejections. 

 I only had heard of one rejection of my fruit this year, and that was 

 Sprague, Warner & Co., of Chicago, where there was an arbitration, and 

 the three that it was left to decided unanimously that the fruit was not 

 only as good but better than the sample, and that as the time was not 

 specified, they would consider the time at which they had received them 

 a reasonable time, as was specified in the contract from the agent through 

 whom it was sent. In regard to evaporators, the experience all over the 

 State is the same. While along the coast where there is much fog they 

 must use them to dry the fruit and have it presentable, there are reasons 

 why fruit dried in the sun is better than evaporated fruit, and one of them 

 is that it has no chance to become scorched, and there has hardly been 

 an evaporator made but sometimes scorches fruit. 



Mr. Booth: Have you ever seen fruit dried by the Acme, a steam drier? 



Mr. Hatch: I have never seen any fruit dried by it. You can get super- 

 heated steam hot enough to scorch anything. I had some of the Acme, 

 the kind spoken of by Mr. Smith, but that has been discarded. 



Mr. Booth: I have some, made at Michigan, I have used for two years. 

 We have had a good deal said by the producers and driers and so on; I 

 would like to hear from the young man who has been in the other line of 

 business — purchasing; I have reference to Mr. Varney. 



Mr. Ellwood Varney: I have had some experience, both in growing and 

 in drying, but the gentlemen who have preceded me have covered very 

 much of the ground which I would like to take up. I have no theory to 

 agitate at all; I look at this matter from a dollar and cents point of view, 

 and there are two or three points that perhaps have not been touched upon 



