FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
43 
at all, and avoid any danger of “cooking” 
the fruit, so feared by some. 
As per Professor Benton's figures, 200 
degrees F. heat would be reduced to 86 
degrees F. by the evaporization of the 
water, so it would be perfectly safe to 
maintain the heat of the steam in the 
pipes high enough to secure 120 degrees 
F. to 135 degrees F. in the drying box, 
if not more, safely, just short of cook¬ 
ing or scalding. 
It would only be necessary to change 
the air in the drying box after it had 
taken up all the moisture it would hold 
at the heat maintained. 
The surface of a sphere equals four 
times the area of a circle of the same di¬ 
ameter. A fruit 4 inches in diameter—• 
8g size—would have 50.26 inches area. 
Allowing three feet of air per orange, 
and an average of 150 oranges per box, 
and 600 boxes per day, a draft vent 2 
feet square would require a draft speed 
of air of 1.87 linear feet per second, 
equivalent to the speed of one-quarter 
mile per hour. Hence, we see the abso¬ 
lute absurdity of forcing heated air over 
the fruit with a fan at the speed that is 
done in most cases, under present meth¬ 
ods. 
The failure of the present method 
arises from the fact that the air on cold, 
damp or foggy days is already near the 
point of saturation, and can take up no 
more from The fruit, no matter how 
much is passed over it. Where they use 
the exhaust heat from engine, or from 
hot air furnaces, as some do, the heat is 
so infinitesimal in proportion to the 
moist air forced through by the fan, it 
amounts to practically nothing. 
From six years of practical experience, 
it has been thoroughly proved that it is 
impossible to avoid all injuries from tree 
to packing house. ( 
It is also proved by experiment that 
if all injuries can be dried, free of mois¬ 
ture, blue mold cannot develop. 
Therefore, it is my contention that by 
the use of heat always under full control, 
we can prevent very much of the decay 
caused by injuries we can not prevent, 
and save the growers thousands upon 
thousands of dollars by primarily pre¬ 
venting decay, and thousands more by 
saving them from ice bills that cost 15 
cents per box. 
This being true, is it not criminal neg¬ 
ligence to continue the present inefficient 
means used in trying to dry fruit? 
Our motto at Mount Dora is, “We will 
pack no fruit that is damp. I have car¬ 
ried fruit in my office in the North in May 
and had it lay until October, because I 
kept it dry. 
Mr. Rolfs: I would like to speak in 
regard to the analyses of the grapefruit 
Mr. McKay told us about: The results of 
the chemical analyses. We should not 
leave the hall here and generalize on that, 
because the number of analyses on that 
were not sufficient to form any general 
statement in regard to it. The analyses 
indicated exactly as stated by Professor 
McKay, but at the same time let us not 
generalize and say that grapefruit will 
increase in sugar content as we hold it. 
Wait until we do some more work along 
this line before we make a definite state- 
