The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1894-05-24

the buyers wanted light fruit. We con-
slider this too much of a good thing.
Three or six pills may be very good
thing in place, but box in the same
place might be an evil.
Sulphuring.-I cut the side out of a
five-gallon coal-oil can, sink it in the
earth in my sulphur box, and for cover
| use board larger than the can, put
ting grain sacks over it, and strap on
the top for a handle. AS soon as we
open the sulphur-box, after using, we
cover our can and then draw out our
carload of fruit with an iron poker
hooked underneath, and let the air drive
off the fumes. We advise the use of cars
by all means. Permanent slides in a
box are exceedingly bad, because you
need your fruit as soon as sulphured,
and to be read y to shove another car in.
lnhaling strong fumes of sulphur is ex
ceedingly trying on ones lungs. We
chalk a clock-iace on our box, with
pine stick for an hour hand, and set the
time when the fruit goes in.
We dry our fruit on the ground in
stubble field from which barley hay has
been cut, laying the trays fat. A better
way is to have platforms knee-high,
slanting little south, upon which to
place the trays but this entails consid-
cradle expense. | made test OF fruit
on agalvanized-wire tray foot from the
ground. The fruit on the wire tray
dried in one days time less than the
board tray. have discarded few wire
trays, the sulphur oxidizing the iron or
zinc, causing the fruit to be marked.
When Cured.-We leave our fruit in
the sun until dried not bone dry, like
some of the buyers from back East want
it, so that they can turn their hose on
it in their sorting lofts, but dry enough
so that the fruit is leathery and pliable.
If you dry it as dry as bricks in kiln
you drive something out of it that you
can never get DacR.
When the fruit is ready to take up
1--WE do this after dinner, we dump a
number of trays on one, using short,
broad wooden paddle to scrape any that
may stick, and when the tray is full we
cover with an empty tray and stack the
emptys up in shapely piles so that when
the men come to haul the trays in, two
men can catch up a great pile at lift
and thus save time.
Our prevailing wind is from the south
west, so we begin laying trays on the
extreme end of our playground and fill
north, thus keeping the dust, if any,
north of the trays. AS soon as our dried
fruit is gathered in trays, we haul it to
our rooms where we keep our dried
fruit and dump it on pile. The floors
OF these rooms have been scrubbed, using
concentrated lye, and wire netting tackled
over the ventilators. These rooms are
never opened at neght; if they were the
fruit moth would fly in and deposit eggs.
Marketing.-I never sell my fruit
early; | wait until apricots are ripe and
generally until they are dried. Once |
would have done better to have sold
early, but only once, sell for cash ;
several operations with commission
houses with one exception) were alto
gether in the commission mans favor.
| make my fruit-boxes out of five-gal-
lon coal-oil boxes, mailing up top and
taking off the side for my top, mailing it
securely with Sd. cut nails, cut hand
holes in ends, and nail an inch square
strip on each top end, so, should there
be any fruit higher than the level of the
box, it would not get crushed. Some
fruitmen have large cracks in the lower
corners of their boxes, and sometimes
fruit will push through and smash and
muss up your wagon. I like boxes with
out cracks.
Our pits we use for fuel in our cook
stove, mixing with wood. Care must
be taken in using them, as the oil in the
seed makes an intense fire, and you may
burn out your stove. Use few at a
time. We also use them in our arch in
heating concentrated I've when dipping
prunes. Some sell to nurserymen. Last
year we sold them at IS and $40 per ton
l leave my fruit in piles until sold, then
bag it and ship. l sell without sorting.
l should have stated that it costs twice
as much to pick from ladders as it does
from the ground, and twice as much to
pick for canuery as to pick for drier.
1t takes one day longer to dry fruit in
new trays than in old worn trays-the
new white wood reflects the heat the
old dark ones absorb it.
Asphaltum paper is not good for trays.
A friend sent me two or three to try
the fruit bellied them down in the CEN
ter, and, when the boys got them to the
dry ground, part Of the fruit had gone
through.
Some of my sulphur boxes are made
of pine boards tongued and grooved.
Last summer made one OF & B build
ing paper sold by the Paraffine Paint
Co. The inside framework was of 1x4
lumber, over which the paper was laid
and tackled with laths covering the seams
on the outside. This was made long and
just high enough to lift trays easily, was
raised and lowered by windlass, and
was quite successful.
l planted some apricot trees last
winter 80 feet apart in the only way to
plant trees, i. e., eauilateral trianges.