1866.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
225 
A House for Drying Fruit. 
BY W. W. SEWALL, VERDEN, ILL. 
However superior canned or preserved fruit 
may be, there is always a large demand for the 
dried article, and when well 
prepared, it meets with a ready 
sale. The more rapidly the 
fruit is dried, and the more it is 
excluded from light- and flies, 
the better it will be, and there 
are several contrivances for ac¬ 
complishing this end. Some 
of the fruit drying arrange¬ 
ments are patented, while 
others, perhaps equally effec¬ 
tive, may be made by any one. 
We give drawings and descrip¬ 
tion of a fruit drying house fur¬ 
nished us by Mr. W. W. Sewall, 
of Verden, Ill., who says it is 
both economical and satisfac¬ 
tory. “ The house, fig. 1, is 
eight feet six inches long, by 
four feet two inches wide, out¬ 
side measurement, and seven 
feet high to the eaves. There 
is no frame except the sills and 
plates, which are 2x4 scant¬ 
ling, to which the boards on the 
sides are nailed; and the cracks 
are battened as shown in the 
engraving. The roof is shingles 
or boards, and it would be 
much better if it projected 
some feet over the sides and front end, to 
afford protection to those preparing the fruit. 
“ The ends of the house are enclosed by a 
series of dpors, marked A in fig. 1. Each of 
these doors moves independently of the others, 
and is hung by means pf pivots near its upper 
edge, which pivots drop into sockets like that 
shown in fig. 2. Each door may be readily lifted 
from its place, by lifting the pivots from the 
sockets. Both ends of the house are exactly 
alike. The fruit is spread upon shallow draw¬ 
ers, which are four feet square and Ih inches 
deep; fig. 3. The sides and bottom are of 
common laths; placing the laths that form' 
the bottom just close enough to prevent the 
fruit from falling through. The ends of the 
bottom pieces project half an inch beyond the 
sides, to rest on slats nailed to the walls of the 
house, and the bottom of the drawer is strength¬ 
ened by having a lath nailed across it, as shown 
in fig. 3. To support the drawers, laths are 
nailed to the sides of the house, two inches apart 
from center to center; the drawers rest upon 
these by means of their projecting ends. A set 
of these drapers is introduced 
at each end of the house, ana 
they rest very close together, 
as seen at B, fig. 1.—The house 
is set on a brick foundation, 
level with the ground, of which 
a plan is given in fig. 4. The 
furnace (A) is sunk two feet 
deep ; it is covered with heavy 
sheet iron, which to better regu¬ 
late the heat, may have a cover¬ 
ing of sand. The pipe (5) is 
six or eight inches in diameter, 
carefully riveted at the joints 
to prevent the escape of smoke, 
except at (7, <7, where the joints 
are put together in the usual 
manner, so as to allow the pipe to be taken apart 
and removed to a dry place when not in use. 
The chimney (D) is made high enough to insure a 
good draft. The covering of the furnace is ten 
or twelve inches below the top of the wall, and 
the pipe rises gradually until it reaches the 
chimney, in order to increase the draft and bring 
Fig. 1.— FRUIT DRYING HOUSE. 
the cooler portion of the pipe nearer the fruit. 
It may be necessary to regulate the heat by cov¬ 
ering the joints of the pipe that are nearest 
FIG. 2 
Figs. 2 and 3. 
to the chimney with a strip of sheet iron. 
A pit {E) is in front of the furnace to admit of 
firing, and should be sheltered from the rain. 
Fig. 4. 
The heat rises through the successive layers of 
fruit and passes off at the ventilator C (fig. 1) at 
the apex of the roof. The ventilator consists 
of two boards nailed together and placed over 
an opening four inches wide, which runs the 
whole length of the roof; it may be raised or 
lowered to decrease or increase the temperature. 
The drawers should be made 
all alike, to fit in any part of 
the house, so that they may be 
moved up as the fruit in them 
becomes dry, and others con¬ 
taining green fruit be placed 
near the fire. As the fruit dries, 
the contents of several drawers 
may be tliroMm together. By 
arranging one side of the cel¬ 
lar to receive the drawers, they 
may be made very useful in 
storing away green fruit for the 
winter; for this purpose the 
slats to support them should 
be placed fiir enough apart to 
accommodate the different sizes 
of fruit. Fruit thus stored keeps 
well, and this use alone pays 
for the cost of the drawers. 
This dry house demands a ma¬ 
chine to halve peaches rapidly, 
and it is hoped that Yankee in¬ 
genuity will soon supply one.” 
—We w’ould suggest that a 
house of this kind w'ould be 
more satisfactory, if the foun¬ 
dation w’ere built higher wdth 
air holes made to admit cold air 
below the pipe, and thus keep 
up a constant flow of dry air through the 
house, and dry the fruit all the more rapidly. 
Old and Hew Styles in Gardening. 
. « 
In conversing a few days ago with an old 
gardener we asked him why he did not go in¬ 
to the propagation of “ bedding stuff” for which 
there is so great a demand. He replied, in sub¬ 
stance, that “ he w'ould not touch it, an 1 pander 
to the presqnt barbaric taste; that there was noiv- 
no true love for flowers, but that all that was 
aimed at w'as to produce effects of color, while 
all regard for beauty of flowers was lost. That 
it was a prostitution of flowers to use them for 
producing an effect of color which could as w'ell 
be done by the use of cloth or any other mate¬ 
rial of gay hues.”—There is much truth in our 
friend’s view, but in discarding bedding plants 
altogether and giving up the effects obtained by 
massing, he runs to extremes as much as do 
those who go altogether for ribbon work and 
lawn embroidery and neglect mixed borders. 
It may be necessary to explain these gardener’s 
terms to some of our readers. By mixed bor¬ 
ders is meant the old-fashioned flower-bed, in 
which everything that suits the owner’s fancy is 
collected, the only attempt at arrangement be¬ 
ing that each should have a favorable place, 
and not be overtopped by its taller growing 
neighbor. In this, flowers are grown for the 
beauty of the individual specimens, and when 
properly managed, will give a succession of 
flow^ers from the first peeping 
of the crocus till the hard frosts 
put an end to the chrysanthe¬ 
mums. The ribbon and other 
styles require but few kinds of 
flowers and a great many of 
each, and they are planted 
so that each color will be by itself and contrast 
with an adjoining mass of some other color. 
