No. 6. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



289 



Corn is regularly parked in 2 pound ca-us at au average cost of sixty 

 cents per do/.en. 



The margin on corn is ver}' small and severe losses are sustained 

 by "swells" and "sour corn." The canner must make good to the 

 merchant all the spoilage that appears in the warehouse or the 

 grocery store. "Swells" are the cans which bulge out the lid of the 

 can owing to a pressure from within occasioned by a fermentation 

 of the corn. Such corn is usually "sour" and is unfit for use. It 

 is evident that the cooking process did not effectually sterilize the 

 contents of the can. So.me bacteria resist very high temperature, 



West Process Kettle. 



and the packer has learned by experience that Uie excessive cooking 

 of high temperature turns his corn daik. Therefore the demand for 

 whiteoess and the fear of spoils keeps the packer anxiously awaiting 

 the results of his labor. 



Heat travels slowly through a mass of corn in the can and since 

 the sterilization is often imperfect, the processor keeps himself in- 

 formed of the exact temperature in the corn at the very centre of 

 the can by using an appropriate thermometer, made expressly for 

 the purpose. Several styles of such thermometers are in use, a very 

 good one is the A. B. H. self-registering sterilizing thermometer, 

 which is firmly suspended from the top of a can made expressly for 

 the test. The bulb of the thermometer is in the exact centre of the 

 19—0—1902 



