386 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
pounds, or 1,480,217,466 kilograms. If each kilogram of wheat contained 
7.2 milligrams of copper,then there were 10,657 kilograms, Or 23,495 pounds, 
of this metal sent out of the country in wheat alone. In the face of these . 
figures, we do not see how any foreign country can logically object to 
American fruits on the ground that they contain copper, without also 
objecting to wheat. 
Wheat, however, does not contain anything like as much copper as 
some other foods and drinks. Beef and sheep liver, according to reliable 
and repeated analyses, contain, respectively, from 56 to 58 and 35 to 41 
milligrams of metallic copper per kilogram of fresh substance, while in 
chocolate the enormous amount of 125 milligrams to the kilogram has 
been found. In conclusion, it is only necessary to call attention to one 
other matter to show how unjust and discriminating it would be to con- 
demn American iruits on the ground that they contain copper in un- 
wholesome quantities. Brief reference has already been made to the 
re-greening of vegetables, as practiced by the French. Peas, beans, cucum- 
bers, and similar products are plunged for eight or ten minutes in a 
solution of copper sulphate, in order to fix the natural green coloring 
matter. After removing the vegetables from the copper sulphate solution, 
‘they are washed in pure water and placed in jars containing a solution 
.of common salt, sealed and sterilized by heat. 
The analyses of such vegetables show that they contain copper in con- 
siderable quantity, as will be seen by consulting the table below: 
Table showing copper in 1 kilogram of re-yreened canned vegetables. 
Authority. Amount of 
Vegetables. copper 
Milligrams. 
IPOAS Sev cso Galippeiy can ess 48 to 60 
(0 Vo Sent i ay Rte fad 2 Carlesta: See 70 to 210 
GO PARAS ee SM GANT Screen 11 to 125 
| bet: 1 Pe AA aR [ODES tis oo aor Ser ck 49 to 99 
Cucumbers........| Magnier........... 2 
TOMALOES iN s-.e ot] DESbIbiee ay pete 50 to 354 
It appears from the foregoing that vegetables re-greened by the copper — 
process may contain from two to sixty times as much of the metal as 
sprayed grapes. In other words, if 1,000,000 pounds of sprayed grapes — 
contain 5 pounds of copper, 1,000,000 pounds of ie-greened vegetables wou!d | 
contain from 38 to 150 pounds of the metal. Great Britain imported over 
14,000,000 pounds of canned vegetables from France in 1890, and it is safe 
to say that these vegetables contained more than twenty times as much 
copper as all the sprayed fruit in the United States combined. 
