702 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



the jar and set in a dry place. Open them next 

 Christmas for dinner. M. A. GiLi^. 



Fountainhead.Tenn , Sept. 7, 1888. 



Thauks, friend G., but I do not just see 

 why you emphasize " sharp knife.'" Per- 

 haps the stem needs to be cut smooth, and 

 without bruising. It has been lately sug- 

 gested that green corn may be kept in the 

 same way, simply with salt and nothing else. 

 With the green corn, however, the moisture 

 furnishes enough water to make a brine, or 

 pickle ; but the tomatoes, if not bruised at 

 all, would be dry, as I understand it. Per- 

 haps the salt preserves them by absorbing 

 all the moisture, and partially keeps away 

 the air. By the way, we have just found 

 two Mikado tomato vines that bore a 

 heaping peck basket from each vine, at one 

 picking. Is there another tomato known 

 that will do this? 



POISONING FROM EATING CANNED GOODS. 



In regard to your comments on the above subject, 

 in the issue of Aug. 1.5, I wish to say I have heard 

 dozens of times of people being poisoned by canned 

 goods, and had one serious personal experience. 

 Traveling in Florida several years ago I found it a 

 universal custom to pare off a half-inch slice of the 

 top of the canned beef (a great deal of which is 

 consumed in that State) before eating it. They 

 said it was to get rid of the poisonous acids used in 

 soldering the cans. The personal experience al- 

 luded to was in eating a can of California fruit. It 

 was what was sold for a two-pound can. Three of 

 us, a traveling companion, a daughter, and myself, 

 each after eating but a small quantity became nau- 

 seated, and in a few hours had violent pains in the 

 stomach and bowels; and in the case of the daugh- 

 ter, who was left at her boarding-school, I think a 

 doctor was called. This was a plain case of poison- 

 ing, and no " sensational scare" about it nor " over- 

 dose of quantity eaten," nor " adulteration of the 

 article of food," nor " intentional on the part of the 

 canner," but it was absolute poison all the same. 

 It might have been the metal on the cans, or the 

 acids used in soldering the cans; but it is undoubt- 

 edly a common thing, or was three or four years 

 ago, to be poisoned by eating canned goods. A 

 Methodist preacher once told me that he and sever- 

 al other ministers traveling together by private 

 conveyance were seriously poisoned by eating 

 canned ham. So, friend Root, you may be too hasty 

 in saying that you " have for a long time been sat- 

 isfied that most of the talk about poison in canned 

 goods was more of a sensational scare than any 

 thing else." J. L. Caldwell. 



Mart, Texas. 



Thanks, friend C. Since my remarks to 

 which you allude, several things have been 

 brought to light. I want to say first, how- 

 ever, that we might hear of things dozens 

 of times, and yet there be no truth in them 

 at all. In regard to canned beef, there have 

 been several distressing cases in our own 

 town, resulting from it. My impression is, 

 however, that it is not the acids used in 

 canning, but that the beef is spoiled. Spoil- 

 ed meat, under certain circumstances, is a 

 virulent poison. Our dairy jouriuils have 

 something similar in regard to poison 

 cheese, and a good deal of sickness has 

 been caused in our own State from this 



cause. The best authorities, however, have 

 decided that it all comes from poor manage- 

 ment in making cheese. A kind of fermen- 

 tation is allowed to take place, that changes 

 the cheese or meat or other kind of food to 

 a deadly poison. In our own town a can of 

 spoiled oysters killed one person, gave an- 

 other a lingering fit of sickness that lasted 

 for years, and gave a third one, who ate 

 more sparingly, an experience that she will 

 remember for a lifetime. The whole trou- 

 ble is from filthiness (I think that is the 

 correct term) in making the cheese, or in 

 putting up the canned goods. We are just 

 now putting up tomatoes in tin cans. The 

 cans are soldered with rosin and nothing 

 else till it comes to putting the cap on. 

 Then they use a soldering-fluid, such as we 

 describe in the A B C Ijook under the head 

 of " Soldering.'' I asked why they did not 

 use rosin for putting on the caps also. The 

 reply was, that it is very difficult to get them 

 on perfectly air-tight, after the fruit is in, 

 without the use of acid. Recently a substi- 

 tute for this acid has been extensively used. 

 The manufactui'ers claim that it will not 

 rust metals, and is not poison on food. I 

 dipped my finger into it and placed it on my 

 tongue, and I am sure it is still poisonous if 

 used with heedless lavishness. In canning 

 our tomatoes, I noticed that the man who 

 did the soldering put enough on one can to 

 solder securely a whole dozen cans. I re- 

 monstrated at once, and showed him that the 

 smallest fraction of a drop was jusL as good 

 as a whole drop. Now, very likely this kind 

 of work has something to do vviili the ne- 

 cessity of throwing away half an inch of 

 good meat on top of the can. I w^ish that 

 canning-factories could be carefully inspect- 

 ed by an inspector appointed by the State ; 

 and my impression is, that the inspector 

 ought to get around once a week or oftener. 

 I do not believe there is any trouble in us- 

 ing canned goods put up by an experienced 

 and reliable institution. Now, friend C, I 

 believe it is true, as you suggest, that of 

 late years these things have been greatly 

 improved ; but it behooves us to keep^^a 

 careful Watch of these things even yet. If 

 the acid used in soldering has been put on 

 lavishly, you can easily detect it by touch- 

 ing your tongue to the inside of the cap, aft- 

 er the can has been cut open. If you once 

 get a little soldering-fluid on your tongue, 

 you will know the taste ever afterward. 



And here is another friend who wants a 

 little instruction about canning : 



Friend jRoot;— Will you please tell me how you 

 can tomatoes, to make them keep? I put up 40 cans 

 last year, and 20 of them soured. Jacob Vaughn. 



Monroe Corner, N. J. Sept., 6, 18S8. 



Friend V., you have certainly been care- 

 less. Putting up tomatoes is the easiest 

 thing in the world, if you only get a rigiit 

 understanding of the matter to start with. 

 It does not make any difference whether 

 you use glass cans or tin cans. The first 

 thing to do is to get all the air out of your 

 cans by crowding them full of fruit. Pour 

 off the" juice, and squeeze the tomatoes into 

 the can luitil it is completely full and pressed 

 down ; then you are ready to expel the air 



