of soaked goods are firm and mature. An attempt was made to 

 obtain data which would indicate the swelling of the beans during 

 the soaking process, the ratio between the length, width, and thick- 

 ness being determined on all of the samples. It was found, however, 

 that this ratio was practically the same for all grades of canned 

 Lima beans examined, so that while some of the soaked beans ap- 

 peared to have swelled materially the relative thickness was no 

 greater. Here again the comparison is not conclusive, because, 

 while different varieties of beans were subjected to the test, no results 

 were obtained on a single variety canned in both the fresh and dried 

 state. 



In regard to the analysis of peas before and after canning, and 

 during the ripening process, it will be seen from the table that as the 

 pea matures the ash decreases, the starch increases, and the crude 

 fiber decreases as a rule, while the conclusions to be drawn from the 

 determinations of nitrogen and ether extract are less decisive. In 

 the peas from one locality the amount of nitrogen decreased as the 

 pea matured, whereas in the same variety from another locality this 

 variation was not so apparent. Similar changes in composition 

 appear in the canned vegetables. The analyses seem to indicate 

 that during the process of canning the peas take up from 2 to 10 

 per cent of water. It is difficult from these results to draw any 

 conclusions as to the changes taking place during processing. The 

 principal value of the work, as before stated, is to afford data for 

 the comparison of commercial grades. 



It is interesting to note that the crude fiber of peas is usually higher 

 in the young, small grades than in the larger, more mature ones. 

 This is due largely, of course, to the fact that the very smallest of the 

 peas consist largely of water and this outside fibrous coat, the meaty 

 portion having not been developed. This determination is of no 

 value in deciding whether peas have been subjected to the soaking 

 process, since but very little difference appears in the values ob- 

 tained for fresh and for soaked peas. 



The blanks in the analytical table are due, first, to the fact that 

 several of the determinations were discontinued after finding that 

 they led to no conclusive results as to the quality of the goods under 

 examination, and also to the fact that the analytical work was per- 

 formed at different times. At first it was intended to make a mois- 

 ture determination only on the drained substance, and about 85 sam- 

 ples of peas were examined accordingly. Later it was found that 

 determinations of specific gravity and starch might also be of value, 

 but as no duplicates of the early samples were obtainable the addi- 

 tional work was done only on the later samples. 



[Cir. 54] 



