Jasper County Democrat, Volume 9, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 September 1906 — EVAPORATING APPLES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

EVAPORATING APPLES.

I* th* Extenvlve Fruit District* *t Western New Turk. In fruit districts, such As in western New York, where apple growing is done on a large scale, there are large evaporators in every town where farmers may sell their windfalls. In some seasons when the crops are large and prices low entire crops are shaken from the trees and sold In this manner, often the grower realizing as much for the fruit as to pick and ship it in barrels. There are also small evaporators made for farm use. These are made of wood, with a system of racks, fitted one above another, upon which to pul the sliced apples. A stove below furnishes the heat, and ventilators are made In the top of the building by which the heat is regulated. These dry houses are made of different sizes and from eight to forty bushels of apples may be dried In twenty-four hours. The difficulty with these farm evaporators Is to obtain the necessary help with which to do the work. The work cannot be so economically done as w’ith the large evaporators, and they are going out of use to a large extent, beyond providing for family or, local needs. - - - . George T. Powell, a New York fruit grower of note, describes in American Agriculturist a drying house he put up four years ago. It is 20 by 30‘ feet, two stories, with an L 16 by 20 feet. This is not down in the sketch, but it extends out from where the platform is shown. This addition is used for paring, trimming, slicing and fumigating. There are two rooms below, each 20 by 20 feet, In which furnaces are placed with a system of pipes running around the rooms near the top, which carry and distribute the heat to the floors above, upon which the apples are spread. Two large towers are built through the roof which carry a strong draft, thus drawing the heat up rapidly from the furnace rooms below. The entire cost of'this building was SBOO. He has turned out in a season

sixteen tons of white stock and five tons of chops and waste. With another furnace room and drying floor, several more tons of chops and waste could be dried. The chops are apples too small to be pared and are run through without paring. The waste consists of cores and parings. It requires four tons of coal a week to run the two furnaces. The chops and waste will usually pay for the coal. The summer and autumn apples are too soft to' be of any value for evaporating. About Sept. 15 he begins on ttie greenings and earlier winter varieties. When running up to full capacity it requires ten people to handle the work, a day man to run the slicing, to attend to the furnaces and do the general work' and one night man. Two parers will run through the machine a hundred bushels a day, while six women are required to trim the apples, cutting out bruised spots and pieces of the skin that the parers missed. Crop Report. The national crop reporting board finds from the reports of correspondents of the bureau of statistics, as follows: —i — Preliminary returns show the acreage of corn planted to be about 95,535,000 acres, an Increase of about 1.524,000 acres, or 1.6 per cent, as compared with the estimate of the acreage planted last year. The average condition of the growing crop on July 1 was 87.5 as compared with 87.3 on July 1. 1905, 8.6 at the corresponding date in 1904 and a ten year average of 86.4. Tbe average condition of winter wheat on July 1 was 85,6 as compared w-lth 83 last month, 82.7 on July 1,1905, 78.7 at the corresponding date in 1904 and a ten year average of 79.4. The average condition of spring wheat on July 1 was 91.4 as compared with 93 last month, 91 on July 1, 1905, 93.7 at the corresponding date in 1904 and a ten year average of 88.2. The amount of wheat remaining in the hands of farmers on July 1 Is estimated at about 46,053.000 bushels, equivalent to about 6.6 per cent of the crop of last year. Sugar Beet Seed. V. K. Chestnut of the Montana station reports co-operative tests with beet growers in which Klehiwanzlebener beet seed produced In the state of Washington and secured by this department was distributed in Montana. Tests of the beets showed that the richest lot contained 22.8 per cent of sugar. The largest estimated yield of sugar per acre—s,B2s pounds—was obtained on the station farm. Vllmorln Imperial, French redtop and Utah sugar beets, grown In comparison with the Washington Klelnwanzlebener seed, were Inferior in every particular, with the exception that the Utah grown seed showed a purity 1.08 per cent greaten than the Klelnwanzlebener. The average of twenty-two beets grown in various parts of the state from this seed contained 16.9 per cent of sugar with 82.78 per cent purity.

ELEVATION OF DRYING HOUSE.