1854 . 
Drying Fruit. 
It has been observed that the amount of peaches 
consumed in a single week in the city of New-York, 
exceeds the total consumption of fruit in Great Britain 
throughout the entire year. The sales of perishable 
fruits are rapidly increasing throughout the country ; 
but there is one serious drawback to their extensive 
cultivation,—that is, the necessity of crowding them 
into market at the critical period of their maturity, so 
that twenty-four hours’ delay shall not witness their 
destruction by decay and fermentation, and result in 
their total loss. Hence the immense superiority in 
this particular, of long-keeping sorts.—which may be 
deliberately secured 
and held in market 
for many months, 
till the best time 
shall be selected for 
their disposal. 
But there is ano¬ 
ther important ave¬ 
nue to market for 
the perishable fruits 
that is at present 
almost unknown in 
its perfected form. 
Weallude to ■preser¬ 
vation by drying. 
Every farmer 
thinks he has seen 
dried apples and 
peaches, but not one 
in a thousand has 
seen them —proper¬ 
ly so called. That 
which usually ap¬ 
pears under this 
name, consists in the 
first place, of a se¬ 
lection of such infe¬ 
rior, poor-flavored 
fruit, as can be used 
for nothing else ;— 
this is imperfectly 
pared, leaving a due 
proportion of skin 
and core remaining, 
and is then various¬ 
ly subjected to par¬ 
tial decay, smoking, 
drying, &c., forming 
when completed a 
singular medley of 
all colors from brown 
to nearly black, and fruit drier. 
with nearly as various an intermixture of flavors. 
Those who wish to see dried fruit in perfection, must 
remember that a poor-flavored sort before drying, can 
never by any ingenious process become finely flavored 
afterwards. The very finest varieties must therefore 
be first chosen. The process of drying must then be 
so rapid that no decay nor even discoloration shall 
take place until the operation is completed. Our cli¬ 
mate is too precarious to think of drying fruit properly 
in the open air, even for the earliest varieties. Some 
artificial arrangement for the purpose must therefore 
be devised. 
The great leading defect of all the plans we have 
seen for drying by fire-heat, is a want of circulation 
in the heated air —a deficiency in rapid ventilation.* 
A high temperature is given by means of stoves to a 
close apartment, the air of which in a few minutes is 
heavily charged with moisture from the fresh fruit, 
and a sort of steaming, stewing, half-baking process 
then commences, producing after a long delay, an ar¬ 
ticle far different from that of a perfectly dried, finely 
flavored fruit. A free circulation of air, kept dry by 
a continued fresh supply, would accomplish the work 
in far less time, and at a much lower temperature; 
and c nsequently retain in an incomparably more per¬ 
fect manner the original characteristics and color of 
the fruit. 
In order to make a beginning in this matter, and to 
assist in the erection bflgood, cheap, rapidly-operating, 
and perfect fruit drying establishments, we present to 
our readers a figure and description of an apparatus 
for this purpose, which although never patented, we 
believe to be far more valuable than many machines 
not thus thrown open to the public. Its peculiar ad¬ 
vantages will be obvious as soon as the description is 
examined. 
It consists of a tall upright shaft, a b, represented 
in the annexed section of the apparatus, through which 
passes an endless chain, made of a number of strong 
frames, securely hinged together at their corners. 
This chain should be strong enough to bear several 
hundred pounds without breaking. At every joint it 
is furnished with a braced shelf, each consisting sim¬ 
ply of a square frame furnished with coarse twine-net¬ 
ting, like a sieve. This endless chain with its series 
of sieves runs over an apgular wheel above and ano¬ 
ther below, precisely like those of a common chain- 
pump, but wide enough to receive the full breadth of 
the chain. Its motion is quite slow, descending from 
a to b on one side, and rising on the other, and is ac¬ 
curately regulated by means of the pendulum d con¬ 
nected to the notched wheel c, by means of an escape¬ 
ment like that of a common clock, but made very 
strong. A strong and broad India-rubber band con¬ 
nects the axle of this wheel to the drum e on which 
the chain runs. As the chain is loaded with the dry¬ 
ing fruit, and is therefore quite heavy, it must not, 
and indeed cannot be subjected to the successive vibra¬ 
tions of the clock work—these vibrations being bro¬ 
ken and destroyed by the India-rubber band. 
The whole apparatus being ready for operation, 
heated air from a stove and d*rums is made to pass up 
through the shaft a b, being let in at the sides at 6, 
and confined to this shaft by the drum e being made 
