Where the electric “juice” is not monopolized, an electric fan in drying is economical, especially for those who already have a fan.

Many sliced fruits placed in long trays 3 by 1 foot and stacked in two tiers, end to end, before an electric fan can be dried within twenty-four hours.  Some require much less time.  For instance, sliced string beans and shredded sweet potatoes will dry before a fan running at a moderate speed within a few hours.

The dried fruit or vegetables must be protected from insects and rodents, also from the outside moisture, and will keep best in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place.  In the more humid regions, moisture-tight containers should be used.  If a small amount of dried product is put in each receptacle, just enough for one or two meals, it will not be necessary to open a large container.

Your American ingenuity and the American practice of reading will show you a lot of ways of saving waste:  for example, frozen potatoes are not necessarily spoiled, we are told by Mr. de Ronsic, a writer in the Reveil Agricole.  They may be dried and then cooked as usual.  The Revue Scientifique (Paris), abstracting the article in question, says: 

“The potatoes must be dried to prevent decomposition, which takes place very rapidly after they have thawed out. . . .  “The oven should be heated as for baking bread.  Then, when it has reached the necessary temperature, which is easily recognized, the potatoes are put in, cutting up the largest.  They are spread out in a layer so that evaporation may easily take place, the door of the oven being left open.  From time to time the mass is stirred up with a poker to facilitate the evaporation.  When the drying has gone far enough, the potatoes having become hard as bits of wood, they are withdrawn to make room for others.

“Potatoes thus dried may be boiled with enough water to make a paste similar to that which they would have furnished if mashed in the ordinary manner, and which will answer very well, at least to feed stock.  The potatoes will be found to have lost none of their nutritive value.”

Even if you haven’t any acres—­yet, there isn’t any law against drying in the city.  Either in sales or in saving it will help to pay for the country place later and the country place can be made to pay it back again.

Call your product say “Landers’ Desiccated Beans” or “Glory’s Dehydrated Corn.”  They will sell better, they may even taste better, trying to live up to the description.  There’s dollars in a name.

As a preservative ice must not be neglected.  The Country Gentleman says: 

While the temperature is below the freezing point we should take advantage of even short frosts to lay up ice for next summer.  The man without an ice pond need not be, without ice—­he can freeze it in pans outdoors.  An ice plant of this sort will cost from fifteen to twenty dollars.