836 JOURNAL OF THE EOYAL HORTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



The two varieties of Damsons dried nicely, and kept their colour and 

 flavour. 



Farleigh Prolific yielded 33 per cent, of dried fruit. 



Shropshire Damson „ 25 „ „ „ „ „ 

 The average time required by the Damsons for drying was six hours 

 for the Shropshire variety and seven hours for Farleigh Prolific, the 

 temperature in each case being 160-200° F. 



Continuous Dryi7ig. 



The time required to dry the whole of the 135 lb. of Shropshire 

 Damsons was 54 hours of continuous drying ; and the fuel consumed 

 dming that period was 1| cwt. of good house-coal, costing one shilling 

 and twopence per cwt. 



As fruit-drying is very suitable work for females, I charge for labour 

 an average of 2s. per day ; and taking that as a basis of payment for 

 labour, the cost of the dried product — after allowing three shillings per 

 bushel of 80 lb. for the fresh fruit, the price I actually paid for them — 

 is 4^fZ. per pound. I have already stated that a larger machine would 

 dry a much larger quantity of fruit for the same cost in labour and fuel, 

 and I think the cost of production would be reduced to about one-half, 

 allowing 3s. per 80 lb. as the value of the undried Damsons. 



The cost of the dried Victoria, Monarch, Perdrigon, and Cox's 

 Emperor was 4c?. to 4^f?. per pound, as calculated on the above basis, 

 and charging market prices for the fresh fruit, as actually received from 

 salesmen. 



The surplus Plums and Damsons have been sold wholesale and 

 realised the following prices : — 



Best Victoria .... (Scl, per lb. 



,, Perdrigon .... Gd. „ 

 Second Victoria .... 4|cZ. ,, 

 „ Perdrigon . . . 4|fZ. „ 

 Pershore ..... 4jrZ. ,, 

 Damsons 4jcZ. ,, 



Apples and Pears. 



Experiments were made in drying Apples and Pears : the former whole 

 and in slices, the latter peeled and cored and cut in halves. 



Four varieties of Apples were dried whole, viz. : Cellini, New Haw- 

 thornden. Lane's Prince Albert, and Greenup's Pippin. The first^^were 

 dried as gathered from the tree ; the three latter were small fruit only, or 

 third size. The results were as follow : — 



lb. oz. 



8 lb. Fresh Fruit of Cellini gave 1 12 dried product. 



10 „ „ „ „ New Hawthornden „ 2 8 „ „ 

 10 „ „ „ „ Lane's Prince Albert ,,2 4 „ „ 

 12 „ „ „ „ Greenup's Pippin „ 4 0 „ „ 

 The small fruit dried in from 7 to 12 hours ; the larger fruit of Cellini 

 required about 18 hours. Those dried in 7 hours were subjected to a 

 temperature of 220-250° F. ; the others were in a temperature of 180- 

 200° F. 



