114 TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY REPORT. 
niass of cheddar cheese. While this trouble has been confined to a 
comparatively small number of factories its effect upon their finan- 
cial returns when it does appear is marked. In a number of cases 
the factories have been compelled to quit making cheese. These 
rusty spots mark the point of growth of Bacillus rudensis Connell,” 
a species of bacterium which is peculiar in that it produces a marked 
color. While the affected cheese is entirely wholesome it is un- 
usual, and, remembering the tales which they have heard of 
poisoned cheese, the intending purchasers view it with distrust. 
It was found that an occasional careful steaming™ of all of the 
factory utensils which came in contact with the milk or curd re- 
sulted in a decrease of this trouble to a point where it rarely caused 
financial loss. 
The question of the original source of the trouble is not settled. 
If it appeared first in a dairy it would be carried thence to the 
factory. When it gained a foothold in a factory it would be spread 
to all the dairies in turn through the whey. It was shown that in 
a number of cases where the factories had been put in good con- 
dition by the steaming process they were frequently reinfected by 
the milk from the dairies. In such factories it was only when a 
heavy infection was furnished simultaneously by a number of 
dairies that any financial loss on the cheese was experienced. As 
favorable opportunities offer the study of the source from which 
the farmer’s milk becomes infected in such cases is being continued. 
The results of these studies will be embodied in a later bulletin. 
CANNERY TROUBLES. 
Few agricultural industries have developed more rapidly in this 
State than the canning of fruit and vegetables. In 1900 there were 
reported 511 establishments in the State of New York engaged in 
such canning. This was a gain of 352 since 1890. These fac- 
tories used in a year $5,592,463 worth of materials and turned out 
products valued at $8,975,321. 
From the beginning of the canning industry there have been 
losses because a portion of the goods failed to keep. There is 
always a small loss, due to leaky cans, but frequently losses occur 
too large to be accounted for on this basis. These failures are 
® Connell, W. T. Discoloration of cheese. Circular of Dept. of Agr., 
1897. 
4 Bul. 225; same in Rpt. 21:27-53 (1902). 
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