Fig. 21.—Portable almond sheets mounted on wheels as used by N. J. Lund, Oakdale, California, 1916.
There are three different kinds of hulling and separating machines now in operation in California, all invented by California almond growers. The first one made was the Read “Sure-Pop” almond huller. This is now manufactured in three sizes by the Schmeiser Manufacturing Company, Davis, California. The No. 3 huller does not have any separating device and is generally best for orchards of less than ten acres. It may be operated by hand or by a small engine or motor. The No. 2 hullers both hull and separate and are operated only by power. They should pay in orchards of ten acres or more. The No. 1 is the largest made and is for use in large orchards of 100 acres or more.
The Beach huller is of more recent origin, having been in use only since 1895. It was invented by J. E. Beach of Fairoaks, California, and is being manufactured by him. The two sizes of this machine are both power outfits; they are doing satisfactory work at the present time.
The third huller is that made by C. U. Reams of Suisun. One of the first machines made by him was in 1897, and is now in working order at the F. O. Scarlett ranch, northeast of Suisun, and is doing satisfactory work. Since the first invention, Reams has made a number of improvements both in the method of hulling and of separating.
Many growers do not have sufficient tonnage to enable them to afford a commercial huller, and yet hulling by hand is a slow and tedious practice. C. E. Sedgwick, Manager of the Solano District of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, located at Dixon, California, conceived the idea of using a centrifugal blower operated by a small electric motor to do the hulling. His description of this outfit, quoted from “Pacific Service Magazine,” April, 1916, page 393, after making two small corrections given by Mr. Sedgwick, is as follows:
The equipment consists of a No. 0 Sturtevant exhaust fan belted to a 1 h.p. motor. The nuts are fed into the suction side of the fan where they are picked up by the runner, hurled against the casing of the fan and blown out of the discharge into a box.
The motor consumes three-tenths kilowatts when almonds are fed into the fan at the rate of a lug box every minutes and one-half, so that the power cost, even at the 8-cent lighting rate, is only 2.4 cents per hour. The fan costs about $20, while the regular commercial hullers run as high as $750.
Further inquiry from Mr. Sedgwick developed the fact that this huller has operated for three seasons on a 20-acre almond orchard. Peerless, Drake and I.X.L. almonds were all hulled successfully. Nonpareils have not as yet been tried. The speed most commonly used was about 1200 r.p.m., though it varied somewhat with the different varieties. He believes that a larger size would do better work.