52 ANNUAL REPOTiTS OF DETARTMENT OF AORICULTURE. 



shipped in ice. Every 20,000 pounds of dressed poultry absorbs on 

 an average 1,300 pounds of water, and about 300 pounds of the most 

 nutritious and appetizing food material of the flesh of the birds is 

 dissolved out and goes down the sewer. The keeping time of " wet 

 packed " birds is also much shorter than that of " dry packed," hence 

 the waste from decay is much greater. 



A preliminary statement of the work accomplished in the investiga- 

 tion of the handling of frozen and dried eggs has already gone to 

 press. Cooperative work was carried on with six egg-breaking plants 

 during the summer of 1911. The fundamental principles of good 

 handling and sanitary requirements were worked out. For the egg- 

 breaking season of 1912, four establishments were equipped to handle 

 eggs in accordance with the new principles. The improved quality 

 of the products has demonstrated that, so handled, frozen and dried 

 eggs are not only wholesome, but a desirable addition to our food 

 supplies; and, further, they preserve for use a large amount of one 

 of our most nutritious foods which would otherwise be lost to the 

 people. The investigation has also demonstrated most forcibly that 

 research work, carried on cooperatively with the industries handling 

 perishable products, can within a short space of time revolutionize the 

 quality of a food product and conserve for the people much food mate- 

 rial that would, without such cooperative investigation, be absolutely 

 lost. 



CANNING or FOODS. 



The work now in progress involves a detailed study of the canning 

 and preserving of fruits. A special laboratory has been so equipped 

 that it constitutes a miniature canning and preserving factory, with 

 a bacteriological laboratory attached for the study of the organisms 

 normally present in the fresh and decayed products. 



An attempt has been made to stop the practice of partially filling 

 the cans with food and adding a sufficient amount of water to fill 

 to the required content. The study of the action of tin on canned 

 foods has been continued and the results published. 



FRUIT PRODUCTS. 



During the past year the Bureau of Chemistry has iustalled at Los 

 AngeleS; Cal., an experimental plant known as the Citrus By-products 

 Laboratory, which^ during the coming winter and spring, will be used 

 in testing out methods for the utilization of citrus by-products. 

 Laboratory work gives every indication that citric acid, oils of lemon 

 and orange, sterilized and concentrated orange and lemon juice can 

 be produced from the cull lemons and oranges, now a waste product. 

 In the work on the processing of Japanese persimmons it has been 

 found that all varieties can be satisfactorily processed on a large 



