490 
Fruit Evaporation in America. 
barrelled and exported as fresh fruit, only tlie second-gTade fruit 
is evaporated, while a tliird-grade goes to the cider-mills at an 
average price of 7^ cents (3|cL) per bushel. Nothing is wasted. 
The cores and parings are dried and sold for jelly-making at an 
average price of ,^20 (4il.) per ton. A bushel of apples yields 
30 lbs. of " meat " and 20 lbs. of refuse. The 30 lbs. of " meat " 
is reduced to 6 lbs. by evaporation, and the 20 lbs. of refuse to 
4 lbs. One pound of coal is consumed in evaporating one 
pound of fruit. 
Peaches are dried both in the " pared " and ," unpared " state. 
The cost of a bushel of good peaches, in average years, is fifty 
cents (2s. Id). Each bushel yields 4-^ lbs. of dried "pared," and 
8 lbs. of " unpared " fruit. The actual cost of drying, in both 
cases, is fifteen cents {7^d.) per bushel, the cost of the dried 
" pared " product fifteen cents (7^d.) per lb., and its selling value 
twenty to twenty-two cents (lOc^. to lid.) per lb. The cost of 
" unpared " dried peaches is eight cents (^d.) per lb., and the 
selling value from ten to twelve cents (5d. to 6d.) per lb. 
Raspberries (black) cost, in average years, six cents (Sd.) per 
quart. A quart of fruit yields one third of a pound of dried pro- 
duct. The actual cost of drying is two cents (Id.) per lb., and 
the total cost of the dried raspberries twenty cents (lOd.) per lb. 
The selling price varies from twenty-five to thirty cents (Is. O^d. 
to Is. 3d.) per lb. 
Flums are only evaporated when so abundant as to become 
unsaleable. One bushel of green plums produces 8 lbs. of dried 
fruit, whose average selling price is seven cents (3^) per lb. 
Fruit evaporation is mainly an independent business. The 
1,500 evaporating establishments already mentioned as sur- 
rounding Rochester are all of this character. The farmer indeed 
owns a dryer of his own whenever his orchards are large, but 
he sells for the most part to the nearest " Evaporator." Apple 
orchards in Western New York are commonly from 100 to 300 
acres in extent. Peach orchards from 50 to 150 acres. The 
Evaporators themselves vary in capacity from 10 bushels to 
1,000 bushels a day. 
The smaller drying aj^paratus is of the simplest description. 
It consists of an iron stove, surmounted by an upright wooden 
casing, the stove being fixed in the basement, and the wood 
casing on the floor above. The products of combustion are carried 
away by a flue, while the hot air rising from the stove passes 
upwards througli the box-like dryer, which terminates in a cowl 
and vane. The dryer itself is fitted with a number of sliding 
trays, made of wire netting, upon which the fruit is placed, 
and these are replenished by liand as the drying proceeds. 
