emember that if trays with metal bottoms are used for drying, they
should be covered with cheesecloth to prevent acid action. Oven racks
may be covered with either cheesecloth or heavy wrapping paper.

The interval between stirring varies with the type of drier used, with
the condition of the fruit and with the degree of heat maintained.
Make the first stirring within two hours after the drying is begun.
After that examine the product from time to time and stir often enough
to prevent scorching or sticking and to insure uniform drying. Use a
wooden paddle for stirring. Where several trays or racks are placed
one above the other, it is necessary to shift the trays from time to
time, so the upper tray goes to the bottom and the bottom tray to the
top.

The time necessary for drying fruit depends upon several factors: The
type and construction of the drier; the depth to which the fruit is
spread; the method of preparing, whether sliced, quartered or whole;
the temperature maintained; and weather conditions, whether bright
and sunny or cloudy and damp.

If the atmosphere is heavy and damp the drying is retarded. Under some
conditions it is hardly possible thoroughly to dry fruit.

There is possibly no step in the entire drying process that requires
better-trained judgment than the matter of knowing when the fruit is
sufficiently dried. A little experience will soon teach this.

The fruit should be so dry that when a handful of slices is pressed
together firmly into a ball the slices will be "springy" enough to
separate at once upon being released from the hand. No fruit should
have any visible moisture on the surface. As the dried apples, pears,
peaches and apricots are handled they should feel soft and velvety to
the touch and have a pliable texture. You do not want fruit so dry
that it will rattle. If fruits are brittle you have dried them too
much.

After the apples and all other fruits are dried they must go through
another process, called "conditioning." The best way to "condition"
fruits is to place them in boxes or cans and pour them from one
container into another once a day for three or four successive days.
By doing this you mix the fruit thoroughly and give to the whole mass
an even degree of moisture. Pieces that are too dry will absorb
moisture from those that are too moist.

You may lose a whole bag or jar of dried products if you neglect the
conditioning, for if one moist piece goes into that bag all