REPORT STATE DAIRY COMMISSIONER 461 



plaints by the purchaser. An example of this condition came to 

 the laboratory last fall when a lady brought in a glass quart can 

 of corn. She had canned this herself. There was a black col- 

 oration on the surface of the contents and around the neck of 

 the jar. An examination showed that she had used one of the 

 new brass looking covers now sold for Mason jars which has 

 no glass lining. The brass like appearance on the cover proved 

 be due to lacquer and the cover was made of iron. The lacquer 

 had broken away and exposed the iron to the contents with the 

 result that the surface had become black and uninviting in ap- 

 pearance. In corn canning factories this same discoloration 

 has sometimes appeared and is supposed to be due to the corn 

 coming in contact with metals in the cooking kettles or pipes 

 through which the corn is passed. The National Canners' 

 Laboratory, under the direction of Dr. Bigelow, has put much 

 study upon this problem and I understand has practically 

 eliminated this trouble. The Canners' Association in recent 

 years have done much to standardize the quality of their prod- 

 ucts and the sanitary conditions under which they are pro- 

 duced. 



Their inspection service in the principal canning states 

 gives them close control over their products. Reports during 

 the last two years show that much salmon has been canned 

 which was in various stages of decomposition with the result 

 that the Bureau of Chemistry has condemned large quantities 

 of salmon in various parts of the country. The cause of this 

 practice seems to be that salmon were delivered to the cannery 

 faster than they could be handled with the result that the fish 

 would start to decompose before they were canned. The salm- 

 on canners have instituted an inspection service, and no doubt 

 much of this practice will be eliminated, at least among mem- 

 bers of the salmon canners' association. 



The good work of the Bureau of Chemistry, in locating in- 

 terstate shipments of canned foods, is a great help to the state 

 authorities thereby eliminating illegal goods from the state 

 markets and allowing the inspectors to devote more of their 

 time to intra-state goods. The state officers' principal work on 

 canned goods is to locate and destroy swollen goods as therein 

 lies much danger. A survey of the Botulinus poisoning last 

 year shows that in nearly every case the consumer or the per- 

 son who cooked the spinach or who served the ripe olives ad- 

 mitted that they detected something was wrong with them. 



