46 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
moisture in drops, turning the varnish 
bluish as you have all noticed under such 
conditions. The metal safe was so thor¬ 
oughly wet that it dripped a puddle in the 
floor, and the paper on the walls was thor¬ 
oughly wet. 
A box of oranges I had packed the night 
before, and left under cover, I found 
with the papers as wet as if I had thrown 
a pail of water into the box. 
A still more practical demonstration 
under up-to-date packing house condi¬ 
tions, I will now give you. 
During a cold, damp morning in March, 
later raining, the Mt. Dora house was 
packing fruit with the cold air system, the 
fruit going* to the bins glistening with 
moisture in every pore of the rind. The 
manager and myself drove over to Tava¬ 
res, where they were drying by means of 
hot air, produced by radiation from 
twelve one-inch pipes, close up under the 
rolls that ^carried the fruit, Extending 
lengthwise of the 36-feet-long dry box, 
all encased in a box made of flooring, the 
pipes being supplied by steam from a 10 
H. P. boiler at 40 lbs. pressure. The 
fruit came through as dry as though it 
had been in the sun on one of our hottest 
and dryest days. 
It is an axiom—The hotter the air, 
the more moisture will it absorb. The 
colder the air, the more moisture will it 
deposit. Hence the absurdity of trying 
to absorb moisture from fruit by a blast 
of air that is already loaded with nearly 
or quite all the moisture it can hold. 
We have tried two years of the cold air 
blast at the Tavares house, by all the 
methods known at the time, and gave it 
up as a failure. 
Two years ago we installed a hot water 
soaking tank, and radiated steam heat by 
a system of one-inch pipes the full length 
—36 ft., by 4 ft. wide, close under the 
rolls, with a small fan at the distal end, 
drawing the air through the main dry 
box, and blowing it back through the drip 
rack box by its side. The drip rack is 
also enclosed and supplied by a system of 
pipes that can be used when necessary. 
It has never proved necessary to turn the 
steam into the pipes in the drip rack, ex¬ 
cept on very cold, damp days.' 
The 10 horse boiler with 40 lbs. of 
steam, heats the water in the soak tank 
and maintains 90 to 100 degrees tempera¬ 
ture in the drying box. Any desirable 
heat can be maintained. 
The fruit is in the drying box about 
eight minutes, and emerges thoroughly 
dry. A thermometer thrust to the center 
of a 150 size orange, reads 96 degrees 
Fahrenheit. The water in the soak tank 
is maintained at 102 to 130 degrees, ac¬ 
cording to how black and sooty it is. 
There is no danger from heat of the water, 
as long as you can barely endure the hand 
in the water. 
The greatest objection to the installation 
of the hot air drying, was the fear of 
cooking the fruit. Experience and ac¬ 
tual thermometrical tests show how ab¬ 
surd was that fear. 
I must call your attention to another 
point of great value in favor of hot air 
drying; that is, its aid in preventing de¬ 
cay. 
Slight injuries that pass observation, 
are well dried out. 
Blue mold decay, can only take place in 
the presence of moisture. This has been 
