New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. AT 
The losses from fermentation of the finished products are often 
large and the causes of the same are obscure. The results of a 
study of fermentation in canned peas have been reported. The 
trouble was caused by a species of bacterium which produced 
unusually resistant spores. Heating the canned peas to 240° F. 
for 30 minutes was found to be sufficient to prevent the fermen- 
tation. This conclusion was tested by canning a ton of peas to 
which cultures of the bacillus causing the trouble had been added. 
A large factory which had previously suffere1 heavy losses put 
our suggestions into practice with entire success. 
Black rot of cabbage spread by cabbage seed.—A study of black 
rot of cabbage has been carried on for a number of years in con- 
nection with the Botanical Department. The agencies by which 
the disease spreads are being investigated. Black rot is found 
in the seed-bearing plants and the germ causing the disease is 
present on the seed from such plants. It has also been found 
that the disease germs are able to remain alive on the seed at 
least eleven months. This shows that at the time of planting 
the seed may carry the disease germs. We have here an expla- 
nation for severe outbreaks where the disease had been previously 
unknown and there was no appa-ent source of infection. 
Soaking the seed for fifteen miautes in a 1:1U0 corrosive sub- 
limate solution or in a 0.4 per ct. formalin solution just before 
planting is suggested as a cheap and effective means of destroy- 
ing the germs upon the seed. 
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY. 
Chemical changes in the souring of milk and their relations to 
cottage cheese.—This work was undertaken for the purpose of 
learning some facts about the chemical changes that occur in 
milk when it sours, and also for the purpose of a»plying the 
facts to the manufacture of cottage (Dutch) cheese. In aJddi- 
tion, a study was made (1) of the chemical changes that take 
place in cottage cheese after it is prepared and (2) of the digesti- 
bility of fresh cottage cheese as compared with new cheddar 
cheese. The action of. lactic acid, formed in milk by the fer- 
mentation of milk-sugar, upon the milk-casein was found to take 
place in two stages; in the first stage the acid forms a compound 
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