33 
The  Cost  of  an  Evaporating  Outfit 
Unit  Size  Plant  Best 
I  hnve  read  with  great  interest  the  article  by  Mr.  A. 
H.  Pulver  of  Wayne  County,  X.  Y..  on  page  1+57.  en¬ 
titled  “Evaporated  Apples  in  New  York."  I  would  be 
much  interested  if  Mr.  Pulver  would  supplement  bis 
article  by  another  giving  an  estimate,  of  cost  of  a  small 
complete  plant,  the  building  and  necessary  parapher¬ 
nalia.  and  an  estimate  as  to  the  returns  and  whether 
or  not  there  is  any  difficulty  in  selling.  A.  J.  K. 
Smithville  Flats,  N.  Y. 
I1E  UNIT  SIZE  PLANT.— For  the  grower  en¬ 
tering  upon  the  work  of  operating  an  evapor¬ 
ator  the  unit  size  drier  is  by  all  means  the  plant 
recommended.  By  this  is  meant  a  single  evapor¬ 
ating  system  having  a  capacity  of  from  50  to  100 
bushels  daily.  It  is  this  size  that  turns  out  the 
finest  stock  of  evaporated  fruit.  In  a  small  plant 
the  fruit  is  processed  with  hotter  care,  as  a  rule, 
possibly  because  of  less  disinterested 
help  engaged,  and  probably  too  be¬ 
cause  smaller  stocks  of  fruit  to  he 
evaporated  occasion  less  spoilage  be¬ 
fore  the  process  is  entered.  The  buy¬ 
ers  know  that  the  smaller  evaporators 
turn  out  tin1  better  quality  of  finished 
fruit,  and  they  are  always  on  the  look¬ 
out  for  the  offerings  of  the  smaller 
men.  The  unit  size  plants  are  usually 
frame  buildings  two  stories  high, 
10x82  or  18x30,  yet  they  may  vary  in 
height,  also  in  other  dimensions,  and 
in  fact  may  be  some  old  building  con¬ 
verted  over  into  a  drier.  There  is  no 
hard  fixed  rule  to  go  by  in  mi  tiding, 
operating  or  equipping  a  drier:  one’s 
general  sense  will  be  found  a 
primt  factor  in  the  business. 
A  MODEL  PLANT— A  model  small 
plant  would  he  about  10x32.  set  on  cedar  posts  set 
well  in  the  ground,  the  sill  being  about,  a  foot  above 
the  ground  and  the  drying  floor  or  kiln  floor  about 
11  feet  from  tne  ground.  This  arrangement  is  as¬ 
sumed  with  the  idea  that  t lie  building  sets  on  a 
slope  or  side  hill,  making  the  two-story  part,  in  the 
rear.  The  kiln  floor  is  then  on  the  main  floor  level. 
Of  course  where  no  sloping  ground  is  available  near 
the  site  desired  a  full  set  two-stoE,v  building  is  con¬ 
structed.  The  kiln  floor  and  furnace  room  descrip¬ 
tions  were  entered  in  detail  on  page  1+57  of  Tub 
If.  N.-Y.  Emphasis  though  might  lie  placed  on  the 
furnace  desired.  A  small  furnace  should  never  be 
used.  Tt  is  economy  of  the  poorest  kind,  and  will 
give  all  kinds  of  inconvenience.  It  is  far  better  to 
lmve  one  of  twice  t lie  capacity  needed  than  one 
needing  a  constant  fireman.  The  furnace  for  the 
model  unit  plant  is  about  six  feet  high,  36  inches 
diameter  inside  of  the  fire  pot,  and  30 
inches  at  the  bottom,  it  is  piped  with 
two  nine  or  10-ineh  pipes,  and  costs 
about  $+0  net  without  pipes.  Its  ca¬ 
pacity  is  about  100  bushels  when  prop¬ 
erly  piped,  with  good  ventilation.  The 
furnace  will  burn  any  kind  of  fuel, 
though  soft  coal  is  not  recommended 
on  account  of  the  soot. 
EQUIPMENT  REQUIRED. — In  a 
hand-power  plant  of  this  size  there 
will  he  needed  two  hand  trimming  ma¬ 
chines  costing  about  $10  each,  and  one 
rotary  dicer  costing  about  $15.  With 
the  addition  of  the  kiln  flooring,  which 
costs  about  five  cents  per  foot,  tlx  is 
practically  completes  .he  outlay  neces¬ 
sary  for  equipment  that  must  he 
bought.  There  will  he  much  that  will 
have  io  be  improvised,  as  bins,  tables, 
hVeacUer  and  accessories.  The  ventil- 
•ling  system,  together  with  the  piping 
necessary,  were  referred  to  in  a  former 
paper. 
WORK-ROOM  AND  BLEACHER.— 
it  may  be  well  to  speak  of  the  work¬ 
room  and  bleacher.  The  work-room  should  lie  on  a 
level  with  the  kiln  floor,  and  about  the  same  size, 
or  preferably  a  little  larger.  The  paring  table  is 
a  nit  three  feet  wide  and  live  or  six  feet  long,  and 
is  set  up  on  a  platform  about  PS  inches  high  to  give 
a  pitch  sufficient  to  allow  the  trimmed  fruit  to  run 
down  into  file  bleacher  at.  the  end  of  the  table,  and 
connected  (hereto  by  a  spout  running  down  through 
the  I  a  file.  The  bleacher  is  nothing  more  than  a 
tight  box  about  five  feet  square  with  a  tight  vertical 
partition  in  the  middle  and  a  slat  floor  made  of  the 
regular  kiln  slats.  The  lower  edge  of  this  slat  floor 
is  just  high  enough  to  admit  a  bushel  crate  under, 
and  continues)  the  same  pitch  of  the  entering  spout. 
On  these  slats  the  ringers  are  allowed  to  bleach 
for  from  +5  to  60  minutes,  depending  upon  the  ma¬ 
turity  of  the  fruit.  Immature  fruit  should  not  be 
dried,  as  it  Turts  the  market,  and  is  also  liable  to 
the:  rural  new-vorker 
sour,  no  matter  how  dry  it  is  made,  if  it  lacks  the 
normal  sugar  content. 
BLEACHINH. — The  brimstone  is  placed  under  the 
slat  floor,  using  first  one  side  of  the  bleacher  and 
then  the  other.  Do  not  slice  and  leave  the  fruit 
around  for  half  a  day  before  bleaching,  as 'the  slices 
will  leach  and  fail  to  make  as  good  fruit.  The  two 
draft  pipes  to  the  bleacher  are  connected  to  the 
chimney,  and  each  one  should  be  six  or  seven  inches 
in  diameter.  Any  metal  basin  of  one  pint  capacity 
may  be  used  for  a  bleach  cup.  In  the  use  of  this 
cup  much  care  should  he  exercised,  as  here  is  where 
many  evaporator  fires  have  their  source.  If  is  an 
easy  matter  to  control  the  bleacher  when  one  has  it 
in  mind.  This  covers  much  of  the  mechanical  oper¬ 
ation  not  already  touched  on.  When  once  the  cost 
of  the  rough  building  is  covered  the  rest  of  the 
equipment  is  rounded  up  in  the  expenditure  for 
A  Canadian  Wagon  for  Hauling  Barreled  Apples.  Fig.  8 
furnace,  kiln  flooring,  piping,  two  trimming  ma¬ 
chines,  one  slicer  and  a  few  other  accessories  that 
any  handy  man  can  make. 
RETURNS  RECEIVED.— As  to  the  returns  to  be 
made  in  the  business,  much  of  course  depends  upon 
the  operator  and  his  system.  The  model  plant  re¬ 
ferred  to  operated  M0  days  las':  year,  drying  6,500 
bushels  of  apples.  Three  women  were  employed  at 
one  dollar  per  day  and  one  man  at  two  dollars,  bo¬ 
rides  the  full  time  of  the  owuo”,  which  might  be 
called  three  dollars,  as  he  puts  in  longer  hours. 
'Lhis  makes  a  daily  expense  of  $8  without  fuel  and 
machine  repairs,  which  to  be  liberal  we  will  call 
two  dollars  more.  This  will  bring  the  drying  price 
per  bushel  about  12  or  13  cents.  Most  of  the  ap¬ 
ples  were  bought  at  35  or  -40  <  -  per  hundred 
pounds  delivered,  so  it  lias  cost  about  33  cents  per 
bushel  to  buy  the  stock  and  dry  it.  The  avenge 
selling  price  of  this  frail  was  OVi  cents  per  pound, 
in  a  year  not  counted  as  good  for  the  dry-house  man. 
The  stock  was  mostly  Baldwins  and  they  went 
about  seven  pounds  to  the  bushel,  which  is  a  trifle 
heavier  than  they  ought  to  he  made.  That  makes 
about  ++  cents  for  the  white  fruit  per  bushel.  There 
will  also  be  about  four  or  five  pounds  of  waste  to 
the  bushel,  and  this  sold  at  a  little  better  than  one 
cent  tier  pound,  this  price  also  being  low.  This 
made  every  bushel  of  apples  bring  about  50  cents, 
which  less  cost  of  production  left  a  profit  a  little 
bettor  than  17  cents.  II  will  lake  experienced  help 
to  do  this  amount  daily,  hut  in  a  week  or  so  the 
net  returns  will  come  nearer  the  amount  mentioned. 
MARKETING  TlIE  PRODUCT. — As  to  the  mar¬ 
ket  for  the  finished  product,  in  the  fruit  belt  of 
Wayne  County,  particularly  in  the  towns  of  Modus, 
Williamson,  Ontario  and  Wolcott,  there  are  dealers 
who  give  their  entire  attention  to  the  handling  of 
dried  fruit.  Warehouses  beyond  the  size  one  would 
think  possible  for  the  business,  to  those  who  have 
not  visited  the  district,  are  thriving  in  this  lake 
district.  Dealers  in  every  town  make  it  a  business 
to  buy  the  stock,  usually  in  ton  lots.  In  sections 
where  there  are  no  dealers  it  will  he  necessary  to 
reach  wholesale  grocery  houses,  some  commission 
man  or  broker.  When  the  business  grows  sufficient¬ 
ly  in  any  locality  there  will  be  developed  a  buyer 
from  that  place,  and  evaporator  operators  will  have 
the  benefit  of  a  home  market,  as  do  the  producers  of 
Wayne  County.  a.  h.  pulver. 
Lime  on  Poor  Soils 
N  page  1+2!)  you  printed  a  statement  from  me 
about  plants  not  helped  by  lime.  In  this  I 
stated  that  the  blackberry  usually  does  best  in  a 
rather  acid  soil.  My  attention  has  just 
been  called  by  Dean  R.  L.  Watts  to 
the  fact  that  dewberries  on  the  limed 
plots  of  land  at  Snow  Shoe,  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  actually  thrived  better  than  on 
the  unlimed  land  and  lie  asked  me  the 
question.  “Do  you  not  think  it  is  prob¬ 
able  that  lime  when  applied  to  soils 
of  low  fertility  releases  plant  food  and 
in  this  way  may  prove  favorable  to 
their  growth  V" 
Tn  regard  to  this  I  should  state  that 
I  have  often  observed  that  when 
enough  very  readily  available  plant 
food  is  used  on  acid  soils  so  as  to 
eliminate  any  beneficial  action  of  the 
lime  by  way  of  liberating  plant  food, 
the  lime  has  proven  injurious  to  crops 
like  the  blackberry  and  sometimes  even 
to  Indian  corn,  whereas  on  the  other 
hand  I  have  known  many  eases  where  the  Indian 
corn  crop  lias  shown  decided  benefit  from  liming, 
but  chiefly  for  the  reason  that  the  nitrogen  and  fre¬ 
quently  other  fertilizer  ingredients  were  not  in 
available  form  and  hence  the  lime  by  virtue  of  aid¬ 
ing  nitrification  and  by  liberating  other  forms  of 
plant  food  proved  helpful.  In  this  case  the  bene¬ 
ficial  indirect  effects  more  than  counter-balanced 
any  possible  direct  ill  effect  of  the  lime  upon  the 
plant  roots.  It  is  very  likely,  as  suggested  by  Dean 
Watts,  that  on  soils  of  low  fertility,  particularly  if 
they  contain  ratlier  unavailable  potash,  or  phos¬ 
phate  compounds,  or  nitrogen  in  very  unavailable  or¬ 
ganic  residue,  the  lime  may  he  beneficial  even  to 
the  blackberry  because  of  indirect  effects  by  way  of 
making  plant  food  more  available,  tt  is  conceivable 
Unit  in  some  cases  the  two  effects  may  exactly 
counter-balance  each  other  and  consequently  in 
such  cases  there  would  appear  to  be 
no  benefit  from  liming. 
I  do  not  think  that  this  particular 
phase  of  the  liming  question  has  re¬ 
ceived  sufficient  attention  in  the  agri¬ 
cultural  press.  I  have  mentioned  it 
previously  upon  many  occasions,  but 
since  I  neglected  to  call  attention  to 
tin's  point  in  answering  the  questions 
in  relation  to  the  use  of  lime  for  straw¬ 
berries  and  for  blackberries  1  have 
thought  it  best  to  discuss  the  question 
specifically,  for  the  reason  that  owing 
to  the  indirect  action  of  lime  it  might 
in  some  cases  be  beneficial  to  strawber¬ 
ries  as  well  as  blackberries,  corn  and 
other  crops  which  will  thrive  well  on 
soils  which  are  .still  distinctly  acid. 
H.  J.  WHEELER. 
Cornstalks  Plowed  Under 
Are  cornstalks  of  any  value  to  plow 
under  as  organic  matter?  s.  j. 
TON  of  the  cornstalks  will  con¬ 
tain  about  10  pounds  of  nitro¬ 
gen.  about  20  of  potash  and  10  of 
phosphoric  acid.  Of  course  under  ordinary  con¬ 
ditions  such  stalks  ought  to  he  fed  In  live  stock  in 
order  to  make  use  of  their  feeding  value,  hut  if 
there  is  no  stock  to  feed  them  to,  they  can  lie  used 
as  manure.  It  would  be  better  to  chop  or  shred 
the  stalks  fine,  as  they  would  rot  quicker  in  that 
condition,  it'  that  is  impossible  you  can  rot  them 
partly  at  least  by  mixing  them  with  manure  or 
piling  them  while  they  are  wet,  and  scattering  a 
small  quantity  of  lime  through  the  pile.  By  Spring 
they  will  be  partly  decayed,  and  can  be  spread  and 
plowed  in  like  manure,  or  they  can  he  worked  into 
the  ground  just  as  they  are,  by  scattering  on  top  of 
the  soil  now,  and  leaving  them  exposed  to  the 
weather  through  the  Winter.  We  have  known  of 
cases  where  in  a  small  way  the  long  stalks  were 
dropped  into  the  furrow  behind  the  plow  so  that  at 
the  next  turn  another  furrow  was  turned  over  upon 
A  Wayne  County,  N  Y.,  Apple  Evaporator.  Fig.  9 
