540 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the Society's Journal, published March 1890. From these two 

 papers and other sources I have collected the following par- 

 ticulars. First, I will give an extract from Mr. Pidgeon's first 

 paper. He says :.— - 



A bushel of green apples, weighing about 50 lbs., can be dried at a 

 cost of from 6d. to Ihd. The total cost of the dried product is from 3d. 

 to 5c?. per lb., and the average selling price from 3^d. to 6cL per lb. 

 One bushel of green apples produces about 6 lbs. of dried apples. One 

 pound of coal is consumed in evaporating enough green fruit to yiekl 

 1 lb. of dried fruit. Before drying the apples are pared and cored 

 by one of the many ingenious contrivances in use for that purpose. 

 The cores and parings are dried and sold for jelly-making, realising 

 about £4 per ton. A bushel of apples yields 80 lbs. of "meat " and 

 20 lbs. of refuse (cores, &c). The 30 lbs. of " meat " is reduced to 6 lbs. 

 by evaporation, and the 20 lbs. of refuse to 4 lbs. 



The Zimmerman Machine Company give the following particu- 

 lars: A bushel of green apples weighs about 50 lbs., is worth from 

 l\d. to 10d., and will produce 6^ lbs. of evaporated fruit. It 

 will cost 5d. to do the work, and the market value of the 

 evaporated fruit will be from 5d. to l\d. per lb. Assuming these 

 figures to be correct, then the 6^ lbs. of evaporated fruit at lowest 



price (5d. per lb.) will realise 2s. S^d. 



Deduct : Value of fruit at highest price . . 10c/. 

 Cost of evaporating . . . 5d. 



Is. 3d. 



Leaving a gross profit of ..... Is. 5\d. 



or about 2fd. per lb., from which carriage and salesman's com- 

 mission will have to be deducted. The net profit will be over 

 and above the value of the apples as gathered from the trees. 

 It will be noticed that in making this calculation I have put the 

 price of the apples at the highest quoted amount, and the sell- 

 ing price of the evaporated fruit at the lowest. 



The same company give the following figures to show the 

 result of one month's run, working day and night, of a No. 3 

 evaporator:— £ s. d. £ s. d. 



Produce : 2,700 lbs. evaporated apples at 7^d* . . 84 7 b' 

 Cost : 450 bushels apples at lOd. . . 18 15 0 

 Fuel 30 days at Is. Q\d. per day . 1113 

 Labour 30 days . . . .808 



28 12 11 



Gross profit .... £55 14 7 

 * This is no doubt the outside selling price. 



