The Ordway new era., 1917-05-04

| this work, and give particular atten-
ton to the drying of vegetables for
household use. The industry was wide
| spread and thriving before the out
break of the war. Indeed. it was gen
orally recognized that the Germans
were the masters of the art.
The vegetables dried are carrots
cabbages, kale, potatoes, spinach, tur-
! nips, etc. They represent the market
surplus which would otherwise rot, and
| which, by being dried and packed, can
be kept without fear of spelling for Il
long time. The dried vegetables keep
simply because the better part of their
moisture content has been removed.
The thing sounds simple; but the ac
tual process presents difficulties.
The process of drying vegetables re-
ferred to as having been developed
in this country IS the work of WaIdron
Williams. Woodford Brooks and DR..
+. G. Wicchmann. Mr.. Williams tells
the story of the work of himself and
| his associates.
"1 never realized how little was
my attention was attracted to it rs Il
| field of commercial effort" he said 81
turned to my fellow alumni at Column
bia university and hunted high and
| low in the technical libraries, but
when ii came to practical details none
of these sources of information was
| Of material aid.
"Finally we decided to make our own
experiments, and something like two
years ago we hit upon the working
principles of our method.
"Our patents have not yet been issued,
although they have been allowed, and
therefore I do not feel warranted in
going into particulars. Broadly, how
ever. the process consists in utilizing
air currents at relatively low tempern-
| ture which serve to draw out and
! carry off the moisture in the cut-up
vegetables while leaving them unim-
paired in flavor and nutritive value.
Please observe that the vegetables are
raw and not parboiled or in any way
cooked at the time they are subjected
to the moisture extracting process.
1--WE are able to control the volume
of the air currents and their tempera-
ture to nicely. The time required to
dry the products depends essentially
| upon the fruits and vegetables dealt
with. The period of treatment ranges
between two hours and something
short of five hours. This can be ap-
preciated if one will stop to think how
the watery content of various vege-
tables differs.
For instance, fresh beets contain
| 81 per cent of water, cabbageS 91.0
per cent, onions $40 per cent, pota-
toes rs per cent, and tomatoes as
much as 94.3 per cent. The larger the
volume of water the longer the drying
operation must be maintained in order
to reduce the moisture content to the
desired minimum. By our system we
kept the percentage of moisture well
inside of - per cent. This prevents
the development of the microorgan-
isms that promote fermentation and
therefore the chemical actions are
checked or avoided which would start
deterioration and possibly lead to de-
cay.
Before our plants were working for
the market at Alluulc hlNer, Sal.,
Bound Brook, n. J., and Webster, N.
Y, it occurred to me that it might be
well to visit Germany for the purpose
of seeing how our products compared
with those turned out by the factories
there. l was fortified with letters of
introduction to the foremost of those
establishments. and logically 1 chose
to make my first call upon the man.
aging director of the most noted of the
vegetable drying companies.
"He received me in a very hand
somely appointed office, bearing all the
hallmarks of commercial success, and
courteously asked me to explain the
object of my visit. I did this briefly.
At once Herr Direktor waved his
hand deprecatingly and expressed his
sincere regret that I should have come
so far to lay before him anything that
pertained to the art of drying. L
could have saved you the trip, Mr..
Williams, because we know nll there
is to know about drying and improve