convenient height from the ground. A little block is
tacked across each corner of the trays, so that at night
or in case of a shower they can be stacked up on top of
each other and covered with boards or canvas. This
is of necessity a slow* way of drying, and the cost of
lumber for trays to handle a large crop would be an



78



BUSH-FRUITS



item of considerable expense. One of the chief objec-
tions to the method is the large number of flies
which it calls to the scene, the attentions of which do
not tend to render the fruit more appetizing. Indeed,
those who are familiar with the method are often
prejudiced against all dried raspberries. Sun-dried




Pig. 15. Drying berries in a forcing-house.

raspberries are usually quoted about one cent a pound
below evaporated berries, but consumers can never be
sure which they are getting. It is possible that these
trays might be covered with fly netting, but this would
increase the time needed for drying, and would also
not wholly obviate the difficulty, unless the netting
was held above the fruit, for if laid directly upon
it the netting would only aid the flies. A single
attempt to dry blackberries under glass when covered
with netting proved such a failure, inducing so much
more molding than without the netting, that there is



OTHER METHODS OF DRYING 79

mncK doubt as to whether it would prove satis-
factory.

Drying Under Glass. Another method employed by
those who have greenhouses for the winter forcing of
vegetables, is to utilize the space under glass during
the berry season for this purpose. Fig. 15 is repro-
duced from a photograph taken in a forcing -house on
the farm of J. W. Corbett, near Watkins, N. Y., in
the summer of 1892, and is an excellent illustration of
this plan of drying. In this situation the berries
usually dry in about three days in bright, warm
weather, and are, of course, less liable to injury from
storms than outside. The plan is, however, open to
the same objection cited in regard to outdoor drying
as to flies. It is advisable to have as much air pass-
ing through the house as possible, hence the door
and ventilators are left open, but by using screen
doors and protecting the ventilators with netting, most
of the flies might be excluded.

Drying with Evaporators. For a business of any
considerable extent, by far the best way of drying is
by means of some good evaporator. There are many
different makes of these in market, most of which do
good work. The hot air machines were first intro-
duced, and are still very largely in use. Later steam
came to be used, and many of the large machines are
now fitted for steam heating. These being newer, are
said to be superior, and if they can be operated in
connection with a power plant where the exhaust
steam can be utilized,* they undoubtedly possess an
advantage. One of the points of superiority for steam



80 BUSH-FRUITS

is the less liability to scorching. From several years'
experience with a large hot air machine, however, I
do not think this point has much weight, for with
any reasonable care no fruit is scorched by either
method. The temperature of the stack should run
from 160 to 180 Fahrenheit. One very essential point
in any machine, whatever the make, is a strong draft
of air through the stack. The amount of vapor given
off by a machine full of hot, green fruit is very great,
and every possible facility is needed for carrying it
away. The difference in the amount of fruit which can
be dried in a damp, cloudy day and in a bright, clear
day when the wind is in the northwest, emphasizes this
point very strongly. In some of the large horizontal
machines, it is necessary to secure this draft by means
of large fans revolved by steam power.

With many of the machines in use, the fruit is
put in at the lower end ; the trays follow one after
the other, and can only be taken out at the opposite
end, necessitating a two -story building if the evap-
orator has an upright stack. This plan has the
advantage of utilizing all the space in the stack, but,
on the other hand, it possesses some decided disad-
vantages. All the trays must be carried down stairs
or let down through the floor each time they are
used, or carried back the length of the evaporator if it
is a horizontal machine. Moreover, all the work must
be timed and a tray put in just so often, otherwise
the fruit may reach the top too green, and all opera-
tions must stop and wait till it is dry, or that on
two or three trays must be put together and be sent



COST OF EVAPORATING 81

through the whole length again, with the chances that
it will then be dried altogether too much. If put in too
slow, or if the fruit is not coming in quite fast enough
to keep the business going, it may be too dry when it
reaches the top the first time. This is an especially
disadvantageous point if it happens to be necessary to
dry different kinds of fruit which do not require the
same length of time in the evaporator. In a machine
in which the trays are carried on hangers attached to
an endless chain subject to the control of the operator,
all this difficulty is obviated. The trays are put in
and taken out at the same place, and any tray can be
brought around to the door and examined as often as
desired, and taken out when ready. In putting in fruit,
one tray only is usually placed on a hanger at a time,
so that in the natural course of the work every tray
comes under the eye of the "stackman" as often as it
needs to be examined.

I have no accurate figures as to the cost of evaporat-
ing, but it can be inferred approximately from the price
which operators charge other parties for doing the
work. In some sections this charge is one cent per
quart, in others as low as two cents per pound. Two
and a half cents per pound appears to be a fair price
for drying and cleaning, and as the evaporator owner,
of course, expects to make some profit, the actual cost
must be somewhat below this. The yield varies some-
what in different years, so that one cent a quart may
mean from three to four cents a pound.

The berries are taken* from the machine when still so
soft and juicy that to an inexperienced person it does



82 BUSH-FRUITS

not seem that they could possibly be kept from spoil-
ing. They are placed on the floor or in bins in a curing
room somewhere about the building, and are shoveled
over every day for about three weeks. By this time
any excessive moisture will have evaporated, and the
balance become evenly distributed throughout the whole
mass, which is by that treatment rendered soft and
spongy so that it can be readily pressed into the boxes
for shipping, a thing which could not be done if they
were dried down hard at first. The fruit is of much
better quality also, when cured in this way, for it soaks
out more readily, making a better product in every
way.

MARKETING

When sold fresh, black raspberries are usually
marketed in the ordinary quart baskets. They hold up
fairly well in these, and being one of the cheaper ber-
ries, this package meets the demands of most markets
well. The berries would be more attractive and handle
better in pints, if the market would warrant it. This
might be found advisable for the first of the season in
cases where a satisfactory price can still be maintained.

The dried fruit is marketed in boxes holding fifty
pounds, or in barrels which hold about one hundred
and twenty -five pounds. These boxes can be gotten up
at home, but it will generally be found cheaper to buy
them directly from box manufacturers. They can be
had at the same price either in the knock-down or put
together. The freight rates are higher in the latter case,
so that the choice will depend somewhat upon location.



EVAPORATING IN NEW YORK 83

It is essential that they be well built to prevent the
ingress of insects after they are filled. They are lined
with paper before the fruit is put in, in such a way
that it will fold back neatly from the top when opened.
The fruit is usually sold in large lots through coin-
mission men, but may sometimes go direct to whole-
salers and dealers with advantage.

THE EVAPORATED RASPBERRY INDUSTRY

Bailey has given an account of the evaporated rasp-
berry industry in western New York, in Bulletin 100
of the Cornell Experiment Station. With permission
of the author, his account of the history of this indus-
try, together with his descriptions of the styles of evap-
orators in most common use, is incorporated here:*

"Western New York leads the world in the production of dried
raspberries. Something like 1,500 tons of the evaporated product
are marketed each year. Of this, about 1,000 tons are produced
in Wayne county, in which the towns of Williamson and Sodus,
which produce nearly or quite half of the amount, are the most
important centers. Marion, in Wayne county, is also a heavy
producer of dried berries. Outside of Wayne county, the region
tributary to Dundee, Yates county, is the most important center
of the dried raspberry industry. The product sold at Dundee is
probably upwards of one hundred and fifty tons each year. Many
berries are also dried south and east of Dundee, in Schuyler
county, round about Watkins. In Niagara county the industry has
become established at Somerset, where about twenty tons are
produced each year. There are also many persons who dry rasp-
berries in other parts of the fruit regions of western New York,
and the industry is gradually enlarging as people come to learn



*Consult, also, Corbett, Bull. 48, W. Va. Exp. Sta.



84 BUSH-FRUITS

that it affords a means of making the grower independent of the
open market.

"Yet the visitor might enquire in vain for dried raspberries in
many of the stores in this western New York country. In other
words, the product is not largely consumed in this state. It is
use'd mostly west and northwest of Chicago. Probably four-fifths
of the product is consumed in lumber and mining camps, and on
the plains, where fresh fruit is scarce. None of it, so far as I
know, is exported, and there is very little, if any, commercial
dried product in Europe. C. H. Perkins & Co., Newark, N. Y.,
Hried the experiment of exporting some of these goods to France
several years ago, but shipped only two or three cases of them.
The goods are still on hand in France, with no disposition to take
them at any price.' Raspberries are dried to an important extent
in southern Illinois and in Michigan, and lately also in Arkansas.
These dried raspberries have as much merit in cookery as the
fresh berries, and they are used in the same manner in sauces and
pies.

"Wayne county is the home of commercial fruit evaporation.
In the apple -growing communities, nearly every farm has an
evaporator of one kind or another. It is said that there are
2,200* evaporators in the county, and this estimate is probably
none too high. All this industry is the product of the last twenty -
five years. The beginning of the industry seems to have been the
introduction of a little machine from Ohio (probably the D. Lippy
fruit drier. Eept. Com. Patents, 1865, Hi. 378], by A. D. Shepley
and George Edwards in 1867. The right to use this evaporator
was purchased by Mason L. Rogers, near Williamson, and the
following year, 1868, he planted five acres of black raspberries,
with the expectation of evaporating the fruit or drying it, as the
operation was then called, and this began the evaporated rasp-
berry industry. Mr. Rogers made some improvements on the
machine, and about 1875 H. Topping, of Marion, took up its
manufacture, making alterations from time to time. The direct
descendant of this old machine is the Topping portable evapora-



*Statement of Charles Mills, Country Gentleman, April 18, 1895, p. 308.



HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRY 85

tor of the present day (Fig. 18) , which is deservedly popular with
beginners and for family use. The original machine, as sold by
Shepley & Edwards, was made in two sizes, the smaller capable
of drying three bushels of apples in eight to ten hours, and the
larger with a capacity of five bushels! This small beginning
seems incredible when one compares it with the great establish-
ments of this time, in which scores of hands are employed and
thousands of bushels are consumed annually.

"The beginning of the modern industry, however, and the
introduction of the word < evaporated' to designate the product,
date from 1870, when Charles Alden, of Newburgh, New York,
patented his tower evaporator. The decade from 1870 to 1880 was
prolific in the invention of capacious evaporators and accessories,
some of which determined the course of the evaporating industry.
The Williams evaporator, invented by John Williams, South
Haven, Michigan, was patented in 1873. This was soon followed
by the Culver machine, which was patented after the death of its
inventor (Stephen Culver, Newark, N. Y.,) in 1882, by his ad-
ministrator, Harlan P. Van Dusen, also of Newark. (Filed Sept.
26, 1880; patented Oct. 3, 1882. See U. S. Gazette of Patents,
xxii. 1171.) As early as 1876, Mason L. Rogers r built and
equipped a Culver evaporator,' as his son writes me. John W.
Cassidy patented his device for lifting trays in 1876. Cassidy was
a resident of Newark, New York, but moved to Petaluma, Cali-
fornia, where he resided when he took out his patents. His
device, combined with Culver's, is the leading lifting arrangement
now in use in western New York. Cassidy took out another patent
in 1880 for a device to dry fruit by exposing it alternately to a
vacuum or partial vacuum, and an inrush of dehydrated air, but
this system is probably unknown in this state. It now needed
only the advent of a bleaching device and improved machines for
paring and ringing the fruit, to establish the evaporating business
upon an enduring basis ; but as these devices are not used in the
making of evaporated raspberries, they need not be further dis-
cussed in this paper.

"1. The Kiln Drier. The evaporators which are used in west-
ern New York may be arranged in five categories, the kilns, hori-



86 BUSH-FRUITS

zontal evaporators, towers, steam tray -evaporators, and air-blast
evaporators. The kiln is nothing more than a slatted floor, under-
neath which hot air or smoke pipes or steam pipes are conducted.
The slats are hard-wood, sawed about seven-eighths inch wide on
top and a half -inch wide on the bottom, and they are laid so that
a crack one -fourth inch wide is left on the floor. As the crack is
wider below, it does not clog and fill up. The kiln is used for
curing hops, for drying the skins and cores of apples, and occa-
sionally for drying raspberries, and even for the making of * white
stock,' that is, the commercial grade of sliced evaporated apples.
The smokestack from the furnace usually runs through the room,
and beneath the floor, but not shown in the picture, is one circuit
of a stovepipe carrying hot air. In some floors the slats are close
enough together to allow raspberries to be spread upon it; but
floors which are built for hops or apples are generally covered with
muslin when raspberries are to be dried. Kilns are generally less
efficient in the production of a first quality of dried fruit than the
other styles of evaporators, because the fruit is not so completely
under the control of the operator. The fruit must be shoveled
over from time to time to insure a uniform product. This hand-
ling is itself a menace to good fruit, and when there is any quan-
tity of fruit on the floor it cannot all be dried equally. That
which is dried enough is generally obliged to wait until the least
dried portion is perfected. Yet there are instances in which the
operator exercises sufficient care to turn out a product which is
indistinguishable from the tower-dried fruit. The particular
merit of the kiln evaporator is its cheapness.

"2. The Horizontal Drier. The horizontal evaporators, in which
the pans or trays of fruit are moved horizontally or obliquely
across the heating surface, are little used in western New York,
and are therefore not discussed in this paper.

"3. The Tower Drier. The tower or stack evaporators, in
various forms, far outnumber other appliances in this state. The
stack is a chimney-like structure, of wood or brick, resting in the
basement of the building and extending up through the building
and projecting above the roof. A coal or wood furnace prefer-
ably the former is placed in its base, and air which is drawn in



UPRIGHT DRIERS 87



from the basement passes over the heated surfaces and ascends
through the shaft, drying the fruit as it rises and carrying the
vapors into the atmosphere. The fruit is placed in the stack on
the first floor, that is, the floor above the basement. It is spread
on trays, and as new trays are put in, those which were first in-
serted are elevated in the tower. The trays finally reach the
second .story, by which time the fruit should be finished, and the
trays are removed and emptied and taken back to the first floor, to
be used again. This, in brief, is the principle upon which the
tower evaporators work, but there are endless variations in the
details, to some of which we must now direct our attention.

"The first stacks were built of wood. In 1881, L. R. Rogers,
son of Mason L. Rogers, to whom I have already introduced the
reader, built stacks of brick from the basement to the top of the
drying chamber in the second story. This was on the old home-
stead near Williamson. A year or two after this, W. H. Bush, of
Marion, built brick -stacks from cellar to cupola, and such stacks
are now frequently seen. The advantages of the brick-stacks are
durability and safety from fire. The greatest danger of fire is
inside the stack, and the wooden fittings and trays of these brick
towers could burn out without setting fire to the building. It is
the common practice to build the stack inside the building, chiefly
because it is a prevailing opinion that the wind interferes with the
draft if the stack is built against the building and exposed on
three sides. This opinion is held in respect to brick stacks, in
particular, for it is thought that the air will draw through the
brick walls, and that they will also become damp in stormy
weather, if exposed. This notion appears to be unfounded, how-
ever, for W. H. Bush, of whom I have spoken, has recently
erected a most successful establishment at his new home at Wal-
worth, with three outside brick stacks with four-inch walls. Mr.
Bush has had much experience in the evaporating business, and as
I consider his new outfit to be a model in its way, I shall have
much to say about it later on. (See Figs. 16, 17, 19, 20, 21,
22, 23.)

" The interior of one of these stacks must now be seen . We
will first turn our attention to the basement or foundation of Mr.









../*-".



41 kiiti



:i

%
\



*



Fig. 16. Evaporator stack with Culver-Cassidy Fig. 17. Shows a front view section,

fittings. The diagram looks at the back (o Y s) C is the head-block (i.. H c o) in Fig.
and inside of the front (T E w y) of the stack. 16.) D is cross-section of head-block.

See pages 89-92.



A NEW YORK EVAPORATOR 89

Bush's three stacks (Fig. 21) . It will be seen that there are three
furnaces, one under each tower or stack. There are two long
openings into each, to admit the air. The smoke pipes from these
furnaces run off across the cellar and discharge into the chimney,
which is plainly shown in Fig. 19. Going up stairs, we find the
aspect of the stack on the first floor to be that shown in Fig. 22.
This is the door through which the trays are placed into the stack.
If we raise this door, F w, and look down to the furnace, we see
a coil of stovepipe, P in Fig. 16, over which the air passes on its
way up the tower. But before we proceed to an examination of
the inside of this tower, let us look more carefully to the arrange-
ments in Fig. 22. The tray is laid upon the frames A A (one of
these is shown at A in Fig. 16), the little door, F, is raised, and
the tray is shoved into the stack, v is a hand-hole, inside of
which a thermometer may be hung, w is a large door, fastened
by a button at x, to be used whenever the stack is cleaned or
repaired. The opening is large enough to admit a man.

"We fire now ready to go inside the stack, and we will take
Fig. 16 as our guide. The stack is thirty-eight feet high, over all,
the walls four inches thick with one coat of plaster on the inside,
and the shaft is large enough to admit the regulation size of tray,
which is forty-nine inches square. A stack of this size holds
twenty-five trays. The back wall of the stack is the blank space
bounded by the letters o Y s in the diagram A. A side wall is
shown in diagonal section at the left, bounded by the letters
T E w Y. The door through which the trays are inserted, on the
first floor, is at w, and one of the frames on which the trays are
rested when they are shoved in, is at A. (See the same letters in
Fig. 22.) The warming pipes are at P (see also Fig. 21). The
stack passes into the second story at F, and the upper door, from
which the trays are removed, is at E. Above this point, the stack
serves as draft-chimney, and as a resting place for the lifting
device. Fig. 17 shows a direct front view of a cross-section of
the stack.

"The chief essential in the interior arrangement of a tower is
some apparatus for lifting the trays, to allow of a tray of fresh
fruit to be placed in at the bottom of the stack. Some of these



90 BUSH-FRUITS

apparatus work by means of an endless chain run on a shaft and
moved by a crank, while others work directly by means of a lever.
Various lifting devices, some of them controlled by patents (as
mentioned in the descriptions of them), are in use in western
New York. Some of the most prominent types are mentioned for
the purpose, not of recommending any one of them, but to ac-
quaint the reader with the leading principles in the manual opera-
tion of an evaporating establishment.

" The lifting device by means of which the trays are elevated
in the Bush stack (Figs. 16, 19, 20) may be called the Culver-
Cassidy or Rogers apparatus. The Culver lifting device consisted
of a head-block which was raised by a lever, and it connected
with two columns or runs of notched strips on either side of the
stack. These vertical strips or bars, with the stationary notches,
alternately recede into the recesses of the wall, to allow of the
lifting of the trays by one bar and the engaging or holding of
them in place by the other. The Culver head-block, which is
shown at H c o, and the lever at L in Fig. 16, was at the top of
the stack. Now, the Cassidy lifter worked from the bottom,
raising the trays by means of a chain winding on an iron bar
which was turned by a crank outside the stack. But instead of
resting the trays on stationary cogs or notches, as the Culver
device did, the Cassidy apparatus employed movable dogs. In
1881, L. R. Rogers obtained the consent of the interested parties,
as he informs me, and combined the two machines, using the
head-block of the Culver and the movable dogs of the Cassidy.
This type of lifting device is the most popular apparatus now in
use in Wayne county and adjoining regions, largely because it is
readily adapted to any size or height of tower, and is simple and
direct in operation.

"The lifting .apparatus in Fig. 16, therefore, consists of two
double runs or columns of dogs on each side of the stack, and a
head -block above. The runs of dogs are shown at N and at Y;
also at s. One line of dogs in each column is stationary and
holds the tray, and the other line is movable and lifts the tray.
One of these dogs is seen in Fig. 23. The dog s E is a piece of
cast-iron, hung on a pivot D. There are two of these dogs, side



LIFTING DEVICES



91



by side. The side of the tray rests on the projecting portion
above s. One line of the dogs is raised by the head -block and the
tray is lifted with it, the side of the tray as it rises forcing in the
dog above it. As the tray passes the dog, the latter falls out by
its own weight and the tray rests upon it, whilst the head -block is




Fig. 18. Topping portable evaporator.

let go, and the movable line of dogs falls back to its place. This
is not the form of catch or dog which was used in the original
Cassidy apparatus, for in that the catches evidently worked by
springs and not by gravity. The brief of the original specification
called for f the combination of stationary posts provided with
spring- catches, with vertically -movable posts carrying drying-