/ yp J THE ALDEN PROCESS OF PRESERVING AND PERFECTING Fruits, Vegetables, Meats, Fish, Amylaceous cellulose (analogous to starch) 32 .95 Protein (analogous to albumen).... 75 Pectine (analogous to gelatine) 12.35 Bassoriu (gummy matter) ... 6.75 Acids (tartaric, citric, formic, malic, and traces . ofoxalic) 6.70 Mineral matter 85 Ohlorophyl and extracts 15 Essential ethyls (imponderable traces) . . 0.00 Dextrine (starch gum) 0.00 Grape Sugar 18.75 500.00 100.09 100.00 N.B.— The item of dextrine, or starch gum, peculiar to the desiccated fruit, is due (says the Professor) (0 the influence of dry heat, aid is practically a dead loss in all preservation by means of dry heat. The absence of this item in the Alden fruit, as well as the presence of 4. SO extra parts of water (chemically bound, as Jiyciratt), exhibits the influence of the humidity, which is an important chemical agent, in the Alden Pneumatic blast. 10.54 ... 10.22 30.95 ... 20.75 80 ... 76 11.35 ... 10 N8 7.22 ... 4.33 4.8S ... . . .. 3.43 87 ... 78 .12 .. 15 0.00 ... 0.00 2.10 ... 0.00 18.75 ... . ...23.08 careful experiment upon a variety of leading articles ; pledging our- selves that those who may be induced to verify these data for them- selves will find them not exaggerated, but well within bounds, even where most astonishing in appearance. Operations of One Evaporator, per Week. ON APPLES. One Evaporator of 40 frames, carrying £ bushel per frame, 2 frames entering and coming out every 9 minutes, makes 160 frames, or 80 bushels, in 12 hours. Total, say 500 bushels per week, run- ning half time ; or, 1,000 bushels, running full time. 500 bushels, 50 lbs. each — 25,000 lbs. ; less 80 per cent, water, leaves 10 lbs. dehydrated fruit per bushel, or 5,000 lbs. per week (half time) ; average, 15 cts. per lb $750 00 Cost, 4f cts. per lb., as follows : 500 bushels apples, at 25 cts.. $125 00 3 girls on paring-machines, 1 1 girl on slic'mg-machine, I ^ . , ^ L ftn 6 girls spreading fruit on frames, f ll girlS ' at ^ 5 5d 0U 1 girl taking off " " J Engineer, $12 ; man, $9 ; boy, $6 27 00 3 tons coal, $7 21 00 Kent, interest, etc 10 00 $238 00 Net profit per week, half time $512 00 full time 1,024 00 In case apples cost 50 cts. per bushel, net profits will be $387 to $774. Results at any given price for fruit may be readily calculated by considering the total for all other expenses as 23 cts. per bushel, or 2£ cts. per lb. of evaporated fruit — cheaper than it can be home-dried in the most ordinary manner ! Note. — One-fifth, or 2 lbs. per bushel, of the above product, consists of cores and skins, dehydrated separately, and sold for making jell}'. Allowing these to go into the total, reduces the average price to 12 cts., as given. Or, calling the pure Alden apple 17£ cts. per lb. (we have not been able to supply a tithe of the wholesale demand at twenty cts.), and the cores and skins 6 cts., comes to the same thing. If the cores and skins be made into jelly and marmalade (under Mr. Alden's Improved .Exhausting Process), they will yield 30 per cent, heavy jelly, without sugar, or 300 lbs. (half time) per week, at an extra cost, of, at most, 5 cts. per lb., and worth, in first hands, at least 75 cts., or $210, net. The resi- duum is entirely soluble, except hulls, and, if treated with fruit acids and sugar, will make excellent marmalade, or " apple butter," yielding at least 10 cts. per lb., net, for say 700 lbs., $42. Total, $252 net, from the manufacture of 1,000 lbs. cores and skins. This is over 25 cts. per lb. ; showing, that 6 cts. per lb., as a factory price for the raw material, is well within bounds. Instead of 8 marmalade, however, a new and luscious conserve, called finit cheese, will pro- bably absorb the residuum of apples, peaches, etc., in the future. N. B. — The jelly here meant is not the common jelly of commerce, but a con- centrated article, requiring no sugar or other substance, or boiling, for its manu- facture and preservation. To make an equivalent for the ordinary jelly, retailed at $1 per lb., at least 10 lbs. of water, with sugar, should be added to every pound of the concentrated jelly. Or, to imitate that article more precisely, if desired, add 30 lbs. sugar to the pound of concentrated jelly, with water enough for solution, fruit acids, flavors, gelatine, etc., raising the quantity to, say, 50 lbs., on the basis of 1 lb. pure apple jelly. N. B., 2. — Small, gnarled, and windfall fruit, usually wasted, will yield, per bushel, 3 lbs. jelly, $2.25, or, say, $2 50, net, with net value of residuum for marmalade. The product of a week's work on this description of fruit would therefore be worth $1,250, while the fruit would only cost half price, and the cost of paring would also be saved. ON PEACHES. Particulars the same as with apples, except the reduction of fruit by evaporation and pits is 84 per cent., leaving (from fair, good- sized peaches) 8 lbs. per bushel of 50 lbs. 500 bushels per week (half time) yield 4,000 lbs. dehydrated fruit, averaging 30 cts. — $1,200; and V50 lbs. skins, worth, for jelly and marmalade, cts. per lb.— $45. Total, $1,245. Cost. — 500 bushels, at 50 cts., is $250; expenses, as before, $113; with 10 girls extra, for paring and slicing, $50. Total cost, $413 ; or, about 10 cts. per lb. Net profit per week, half time, $832. Net profit per week, full time, $1,064. In case peaches cost 75 cts. per bushel, profits will be $707 to $1,414. Peaches worth $1 per bushel will yield choice fruit at a more than compensating extra price. ON TOMATOES. At 60 lbs. per bushel, losing 93^ per cent, water and waste, making 4 lbs. dehydrated fruit, and requiring about twice the time of apples and peaches, the consumption and product per week are : 250 bushels, making 1,000 lbs., at 75 cts $750 00 Cost : 19 cts per lb., viz. : 250 bushels, at 35 cts $S7 50 Evaporation, etc. (10 girls and 1 man) 102 00 $189 ,50 Net profit per week, half time $560 50 full time 1,121 00 Note. — The price placed upon this new article (compressed in solid cakes) compares thus with that of canned tomatoes, inferior to it in quality and fitness for exportation to distant markets: 1 lb. of Alden tomatoes is equal to 6 qts. canned tomatoes ; and 75 cts. per lb. for the former is therefore equivalent to 12^ cts. per qt. can, or $1.50 per dozen, for the latter — a price at which it would be impossible to purchase them from first hands, and on the largest scale. 9 ON SWEET POTATOES. This vegetable requires one-third more time for evaporating than apples, and will turn out 360 bushels per week, half time. At 60 lbs. per bushel, losing 70 per cent, water and refuse, and yielding 18 lbs. dehydrated vegetable, the weekly work will be : 360 bushels, 6,480 lbs. (dehydrated). 10 cts $648 00 Cost: 3| cts. per lb., viz.: 360 bushels, at 40 cts., $144 00 Evaporation, etc., with 16 girls 138 00 282 00 Net profit per week, half time, $366 00 full time, 733 00 This article will find unlimited market throughout the world at all seasons of the year, and in most countries will be a luxury as novel as delicious, retaining, as it does, all the properties of the sweet potato in perfection, and requiring only a few hours in pure water to be ready for frying, or cooking by steam. Mention may properly be made here of the delicious syrup ob- tained from the dehydrated sweet potato, at a trifling expense, by Mr. Alden's patent exhausting process. The yield is over one gallon per bushel, of the heaviest and richest quality, 11 lbs. to the gallon. The average product per acre is 500 bushels, yielding, at only $1 per gallon, $500 in syrup, and a residuum of 5,000 lbs. flour, worth at least $ 150. The cost of manufacture, without paring, need not exceed the value of the flour, leaving the syrup, $500, as the annual clear product of tillage per acre. This syrup is pronounced by all who have tasted it the finest ar- ticle ever yet known. The manufacture of the sugar is as yet un- developed ; but, in preserved sweet potatoes, syrup, and flour, to go no further, our Southern States will find at once a product and a market practically illimitable, and that must, ere long, rival their cotton itself in aggregate value, while greatly surpassing it in profit.. The flour makes delicious griddle or batter cakes, puddings, pies,, and bread, and it is believed will yet become one of the most popu- lar and important of breadstuffs. ON PUMPKINS AND SQUASHES. 1,440 pumpkins, averaging 15 lbs., losing 93^ per cent, water and refuse, yield 1 lb. each dehydrated pumpkin, 1,440 lbs., 30 cts $432 G#> Cost : la cts per lb., viz : 1,440 pumpkins at 4 cts . $57 60 Manipulating and evaporation (14 girls) 133 00 189 60 Net profit per week, half time, $2-13 40 full time, 484 80 Season, say 17 weeks. Total 8,24160., 10 In the case of this vegetable, also, the price paid the farmer gives him a very profitable crop in northern climates, and without en- grossing land for other purposes. In reckoning purely agricultural profits, per acre, this crop, (1,000 pumpkins, $40), and that of sweet corn, hereafter stated ($60), should be added together, making $100. To the evaporating season for pumpkins above should also be added two months on summer squashes," which will add another new summer delicacy for the table all the year and world around, and will raise the season's work to over $12,000. The most important consideration on this part of the subject re- mains to be stated. The pumpkin will rival the beet in the produc- tion of sugar, through the aid of the Alden processes. It has a large percentage of saccharine matter naturally, besides a rich supply of mucus for conversion to sugar by super-maturation. Sugar is un- doubtedly destined to become, by means of this great discovery, a product more universal, and hardly less abundant and cheap than wheat or Indian corn. The winter squash gives data somewhat different from the pump- kin. A week's work (half time), 1,440 squashes, costing 10 cents each, will make 1,800 lbs., 35 cts. — $630. Cost of evaporation, $237, and profit $393 ; or full time, $786. ON SWEET CORN. 76,800 ears per week, or 19,200 lbs. off cob, give 9,600 lbs. preserved at 10 cts $960 00 Cost : 4J cts. per lb., viz. : 76 > 800 ears at 30 cts! per 100 $230 40 Expenses (30 girls) 208 00 438 40 Net profit per week, half time, $521 60 full time, 1,043 20 Evaporating on cob will save cost in hands, and afford an article to be preferred by many, as undistinguishable on the table from summer green corn. This crop will yield 4 good ears per hill from 5,000 hills per acre ; 20,000 ears, $60, besides imperfect ears and green fodder worth fully the cost of the whole crop, and pumpkins, as above, $40; total, $100 net profit per acre to the farmer. GRAPES, CURRANTS, BLACKBERRIES, CHERRIES, AND SMALL FRUITS GENERALLY. Grapes, currants, etc., are beautifully raisined by pneumatic evap- oration, and from this condition extracts are drawn with great 11 facility producing improved descriptions of syrups from which, compare favorably with the majority of those imported. The green currant and gooseberry, after evaporation, ,,11 e available the year ronnd and in all markets for making pies of the "eL flavor characteristic of .hose fnuts, and so much preferred b many persons. The ripe enrrant raisin will now prove a rich and novel article for pies as well as puddings. All the small fruits are dehydrated and preserved ,„ a snpenoi manner and from the blackberry or cherry a concentration » made "hkTwill produce at a few hours' notice, anywhere (w.th the addi- tion of alcohol, water, and sugar), a blackberry brandy, or cherry rum, of the finest possible quality. MISCELLANEOUS. All kinds of salads and delicate vegetables, such as onions, aspar- ttti cabbages, celery, spinach, peas, Lima beans, and others already nlned, are preserved fresh and dehydrated for all seasons of the • year ami all markets of the world, returning at any tune, m water, to their original color, flavor, and other properties. _ Roots, as potatoes, turnips, parsnips and carrots are greatly im- proved in sweetness and purity of flavor, while reduced to a com- pact, portable, and imperishable form. P The manufacture of grape sugar from the starch ot the common potato, and of cane, beet, sorghum and other sugars, will be greatly increased in productiveness and quality, while cheapened m cost, by the aid of the Aldan processes. The curing of tobacco and hops, and the drying of glue, are im- portant branches of manufacture to which this process must be ap- plied saving a vast amount of waste, deterioration, and outright sacrifice of materials, incident to the present methods, and rendering the operations rapid, cheap, and certain. Beef pork, mutton, and fish, will yet be cured by tins method ex- clusively saving the immense consumption (waste) of salt, and the ]o