This kiln is located at the foot of a steep bluff, the top about level with the top of the kiln, with railway track built of wooden sleepers, with light iron bars, running from the bluff to the top of the kiln, and a hand-car makes it very convenient filling the kiln. Such a location should be had if possible. Your inquirer may perhaps get some ideas of the principles of a kiln for using _coal_. The dimensions may be reduced, if desired. If for _wood_, the arch would have to be formed for that, and the height of kiln reduced.
[Footnote: From the report of the New York Agricultural Society.]
Within the county of Oswego, New York, Dewitt C. Peck reports there are five apple jelly factories in operation. The failure of the apple crop, for some singular and unexplained reason, does not extend in great degree to the natural or ungrafted fruit. Though not so many as common, even of these apples, there are yet enough to keep these five mills and the numerous cider mills pretty well employed. The largest jelly factory is located near the village of Mexico, and as there are some features in regard to this manufacture peculiar to this establishment which may be new and interesting, we will undertake a brief description. The factory is located on the Salmon Creek, which affords the necessary power. A portion of the main floor, first story, is occupied as a saw mill, the slabs furnishing fuel for the boiler furnace connected with the evaporating department. Just above the mill, along the bank of the pond, and with one end projecting over the water, are arranged eight large bins, holding from five hundred to one thousand bushels each, into which the apples are delivered from the teams. The floor in each of these has a sharp pitch or inclination toward the water and at the lower end is a grate through which the fruit is discharged, when wanted, into a trough half submerged in the pond.
The preparation of the fruit and extraction of the juice proceeds as follows: Upon hoisting a gate in the lower end of this trough, considerable current is caused, and the water carries the fruit a distance of from thirty to one hundred feet, and passes into the basement of the mill, where, tumbling down a four-foot perpendicular fall, into a tank, tight in its lower half and slatted so as to permit the escape of water and impurities in the upper half, the apples are thoroughly cleansed from all earthy or extraneous matter. Such is the friction caused by the concussion of the fall, the rolling and rubbing of the apples together, and the pouring of the water, that decayed sections of the fruit are ground off and the rotten pulp passes away with other impurities. From this tank the apples are hoisted upon an endless chain elevator, with buckets in the form of a rake-head with iron teeth, permitting drainage and escape of water, to an upper story of the mill, whence by gravity they descend to the grater. The press is wholly of iron, all its motions, even to the turning of the screws, being actuated by the water power. The cheese is built up with layers inclosed in strong cotton cloth, which displaces the straw used in olden time, and serves also to strain the cider. As it is expressed from the press tank, the cider passes to a storage tank, and thence to the defecator.