682 



Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



one or two cans out of a batch will spoil, and the housekeeper cannot 

 understand how this is possible, since they were all treated alike. The 



secret probably is that at the last moment a spore got 

 into the fruit in some way. The canning of fruit is a 

 simple and sure process, if the cans are perfect and 

 absolute cleanliness and sterilization have been secured. 

 The greatest care may have been taken in all things 

 but one, and the neglect of that one thing may cost 

 many jars of fruit. For example, the utensils and 

 fruit may have been sterilized perfectly but a soiled 

 towel for handling utensils and jars used. Spores 

 from this soiled towel may have fallen on the utensil or fruit. In a few 

 days they germinated in the fruit juice, and as they grew, they produced 

 fermentation or molds, depending on the kind of spores. One bit of 

 carelessness caused the loss of valuable labor, time and material. 



Fig. 182. — -Use the 



wire basket to 

 plunge the fruit 

 into water. 



Methods of SterUization. 



We have found that there are three kinds of very small vegetable 

 organisms which injure food by growing on it, or in it. W'e have also 



Fig. 183. — A flat skimmer. 



Fig. 184. — .4 convoiicncc in filling 

 the cans. 



found that nearly all these organisms produce spores, which may be 

 likened to the seeds of plants. We all know that we can keep some kind 

 of seeds for years, and that as soon as they are planted and watered, a 

 change begins to take place. They germinate and begin to grow, and in 

 time become plants like those which produced the seed. During all the 

 months and years in which the seeds had been resting they retained the 

 germ of life, and they only needed moisture, w'armth and other proper 

 conditions to start this germ into life. Once started, if the conditions 

 are all right, growth is continuous and rapid, until the plant matures. 

 If. however, there should be a drought and no one waters the plant, it 

 will die. Or if there should be a hard freeze, and there is no way of 

 protecting the plant from the cold, it will die if the freeze continues long 

 enough. Extreme heat, too, will kill the plant. The little plants that we 

 know as yeasts, molds and bacteria arc destroyed by extreme heat or cold, 



