444 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



got our money back that we put into them. 

 Never mind. We took the fruit down into our 

 wax-room, where we make foundation. One of 

 the large wooden vats was tilled with water, 

 which was sot to boiling by means of a steam- 

 pipe. The tomatoes were then put into baskets 

 made of poultry-netting. These were dipped 

 into the boiling water just long enough to make 

 them peel nicely. Then the women-folks peel- 

 ed them, took out the seeds, and filled the tin 

 cans plump full of solid meat. This being 

 done, one of our tinners soldered on the caps. 

 Before doing this, a small hole was pricked in 

 the cap with an awl. This is to let out the 

 steam. The cans were then put into the wired 

 baskets again, say a dozen in a basket, and low- 

 ered into the vat of boiling water. When they 

 had boiled long enough so the entire contents 

 of the can were boiling hot (say 10 minutes), 

 thus expelling every bit of air from the can, 

 they were lifted out and a drop of solder was 

 quickly put on the vent-hole, with a soldering- 

 iron and again boiled for about an hour.* After 

 they were cold they were ready to be packed 

 away. You should put them where they will 

 not freeze, and at the same time where there is 

 not dampness enough to rust the tin. We just 

 lost thirty or forty dollars by storing our cans 

 in a damp cellar. Friend Cummins has his 

 stacked up from floor to ceiling, right close 

 around the hot-air furnace that warms his spa- 

 cious dwelling-house in which he lives. The 

 furnace, of course, is located righton the ground 

 in the cellar. I think there was a cement bot- 

 tom to the cellar. But this whole basement 

 was as dry as a chip during some of the damp- 

 est and wettest weather we had last spring. 



The process of canning corn is somewhat dif- 

 ferent. I believe it is boiled a good deal longer; 

 in fact, this second boiling is something like two 

 or three hours. Some factories. I am told, put 

 in some sort of chemical to keep the corn from 

 spoiling; but I am told nothing of this kind is 

 needed if the work is done right. It just now 

 occurs to me, that, as a rule, the owners of can- 

 ning-factories are not usually disposed to give 

 away their secrets and tricks of trade; and this 

 is all right, for it is their privilege to keep their 

 business to themselves if they think proper. I 

 do not suppose anybody would object to what I 

 have given away, for it is mostly pretty well 

 known already. 



Very likely many of you can save your toma- 

 toes, and perhaps small fruits, in a way that 

 you can get your money back, if you sell your 

 stock at retail. Put up a good article; make 

 your reputation for it; put your name on the 

 can, and then take your product around and 

 sell it at retail. We have canned goods on our 

 market-wagon every day in the year. I would 

 not put labels on until ready to sell the goods; 

 then they will be nice and clean. You can buy 

 lithographed labels for tomatoes, corn, and 

 many small fruits, of the label companies. 

 They are just right for the cans, printed in 

 bright waterproof colors, representing tine spec- 

 imens of the contents of the can. There is a 



* I almost forgot to say that green hands will be 

 pretty sure to make more or less leaky cans. Now, 

 the test of leakage comes in right here: After tlie 

 vent-hole is soldered up, just as soon as the can Is 

 put into boiling water, and begins to get liot, bub- 

 bles of air will be seen issuing from the leak, and 

 this indicates tliat the can must be fished out and 

 the leak soldered up. Another thing, after the cans 

 are put away, if the work has not been properly 

 done some of them will begin to swell and bulge 

 out. This indicates that fermentation is going on 

 inside. If the cans are sorted out just as they be- 

 gin to bulge, the contents, frequently, may be used 

 at once on the table; or, if you want to take the 

 trouble, they may be canned over again. 



blank space left for your name and address, that 

 can be put on at any printing-office. Labels 

 for ;Mb. cans cost about «2.00 per 1000. 



Now, if any of the friends who have had ex'- 

 perionce in this matter of canning — that is, 

 canning for the markets— in tin, have a mind to 

 give us any hints, we shall be glad to hear from 

 them. The great factories have what they call 

 process kettles, and other arrangements, so the 

 filled cans may be heated up by running a small 

 carload right into a large steam-tight iron box, 

 where steam is let in so as to do all the heating 

 and cooking under steam-pressure. There is 

 considerable lifting connected with canning, es- 

 pecially where it is done on a large scale, and 

 we want to manage so as to have no useless 

 movements, or lugging stuff around needlessly. 

 Arrange your whole plant so that a wagonload 

 of tomatoes may be brought as near as possible 

 where it is wanted; then move on trucks, wheel- 

 barrow, or some equivalent, your product right 

 along until it is dropped in its finished state at 

 some other place, where it can be easily loaded 

 on to a wagon. Arrange things so as to spare 

 the women-folks all kinds of fatiguing lifting. 

 Have convenient tables made to work on, and 

 clean up all the refuse every night. Take it out 

 on to the ground, and plow it under, and the 

 peelings will be worth, for some crops, almost as 

 much as manure. You can make the juice into 

 ketchup, and put it up in fruit-jars or bottles. 

 If you make a good brand of ketchup it ought 

 to pay as well as or better than the tomatoes. If 

 you have more juice than you can use for 

 ketchup, give it to the pigs to drink. If you 

 have no pigs, may be you had better borrow 

 some. If your tomatoes are carefully grown 

 from seed purchased from some reliable firm, 

 of some of the standard sorts, you can save the 

 seeds and get quite a good sum of money for 

 them, providing — what do you suppose I am 

 going to say now? — providing your reputation 

 is so well established that a good seedsman can 

 readily find out whether or not it will be safe to 

 buy your seeds. Seedsmen are very careful and 

 cautious, and they ought to be. You know how 

 I got my fingers burned by buying Ignotum 

 seeds. Of course, I expected to buy only of 

 those who had received free packets of seeds 

 from ourselves; but in some way or other some 

 other kinds of seeds — perhaps not more than an 

 ounce or two— got into the lot; and before I 

 knew it a dozen or more friends had been wast- 

 ing their time in raising something they did not 

 want, and something that was not Ignotum at 

 all. Here is an illustration of the value of a 

 good name and of a good reputation. Where 

 there are a dozen people from whom I should be 

 willing to purchase seeds, feeling sure there 

 would not be any blunder about it. there are 

 hundreds of people— yes, good people too, of 

 whom I should be afraid to buy. They might 

 mean well, but I should be afraid of their heed- 

 less habits and careless way of doing things. 



WEEDS, SMALL BOYS, ETC. 



As a rule, very few boys like to weed the 

 onion-beds, nor any other plant-beds, for that 

 matter. Now, I think the nicest work in the 

 world, especially after a shower, when the 

 weeds come out nicely, is this same work of 

 weeding. I like it because it does me good to 

 see the plants boom when the thievish weeds 

 are taken out of their way so as to give them 

 elbow room, and at the same time stop them 

 from stealing the rich plant-food that belongs 

 to the plants. The boys as a rule, however, 

 have little sympathy with me in the matter. 

 A boy will wheel sand or unload a car of tile, 

 and he will work, while doing it, like a young 



