The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-30
wRINGING THE WATER OUT


 Perhaps the railroads and other cor porations learned many of their ways from Dame Nature; for example, the use of water in expanding their securi- ties. In Natures alchemy water plays prominent part, so that for every pound of solids in luscious fruits or nourishing vegetables there are from nine to fourteen or more pounds of water. For vegetables the average is around nine or ten pounds of water for each pound of solids. Thus, according to statement in the December issue of the National Magazine. of every ten car loads of vegetables shipped over the country nine carloads are nothing but water. This is an Illuminating thought for those who bemoan high freight rates. No wonder the railroads caught on to the advantageous uses of water for pur- poses of profit. Nature egged them on.
 Sooner or later, however, when some body finds a source of profit in doing something certain way, somebody comes along and takes it away from them by doing it a different and more efficient way. In these days of freight congestion, anybody who can reduce the bulk of any given commodity is going to dtIcutlOu. luc muu III LuIS case is the inventor and exploiter of the processes of dehydration, or wiring ing the water out of vegetables and fruits. Of course, dried fruit and dried vegetables are no new thing. The Arabs have been drying figs and dates for mo- body knows how many centuries, while our grandmothers dried fruit and vnge- tables religiously for winter use in those olden days when it wasn't SO easy to step down to the grocery twenty miles away to get a can of beans, corn or to- matoes. Besides, even after getting to the grocery, the chances are that the customer would nave been sorely disap- pointed, for groceries in those days were of great siIepli rry.
 In the vegetable and fruit stored or dried by our grandmothers, however, there was much deterioration in quality. By more modern processes, it is held that the drying is done rapidly before the deterioration can occur, and that when later the product is cooked and served it cannot be distinguished from the fresh article similarly prepared. The benefit to the housewife is expected to accrue in more actual food value for the money spent at the grocery, since the prices are heralded as offering more nutritional units than for fresh fruit or vegetables.
 The greatest benefit of immediate ap- peal, however, is to truck growers. It is estimated that dehydrating plants would have saved the truck growers of Cook and Lake counties, Illinois, five million dollars in one season that was unfavor- able to the usual methods of marketing. Every year, however, the truck growers lose great quantities of perishable prod ucts that could be saved by dehydration and sold to profitable advantage. What this process would do for the growers in one district itwould do for growers in any district, and doubtless many com munities, now impoverished because of isolation or other disadvantages, could he made productive and prosperous by the new method of reducing bulk and at the same time preserving all manner of truck products in palatable form. It may not be too much to say that dehy- dration according to the latest and most approved method bids fair to add to the profit production while at the same time offering a substantial economy to house. keeping