18 THE CANNING OF FOODS. 



position of machines and tables where there will be more or less 

 water or waste, so that this may be confined and the floors be flushed 

 clean and kept reasonably dry with the minimum of labor. There 

 should be frequent trap connections with the sewer. The kind of 

 material best adapted for a floor will depend in a measure upon 

 whether it is to be used for dry work and storage or whether water 

 is employed more or less freely. Factories having a short packing 

 season, as in the case of tomato canning, find concrete to be the best. 

 Wood shrinks, swells, and cracks with changes of moisture; the 

 cracks are hard to clean, leakage is almost certain to occur, and these 

 conditions become aggravated in factories which are idle a part of 

 the time. Wood with a smooth covering, such as sheet roofing, makes 

 a good floor, but will not last long. Concrete is more or less porous, 

 wears rough, and is not an ideal floor, but is the best for certain 

 conditions. Asphalt wears away and crumbles too easily. Upper 

 floors should not be chosen for food preparation if plenty of ground 

 space is available, for the reason that it is difficult to keep, them 

 tight. Furthermore, the work can be supervised to better advantage 

 on one floor than on many, unless the departments are so large as to 

 demand a superintendent in each. Conveyers can be obtained to 

 handle products from one machine to another, and these are more 

 easily kept clean than are floors. Conveyers and overhead tracks 

 should be used in handling the product as far as is possible in prefer- 

 ence to trucks, as the latter are destructive of floors and are not so 

 clean. 



The use of slat gratings to cover the floor about the kettles or other; 

 places where there is a splashing or overflow of water is especially 

 to be commended. These may be made in sections about 2 by 4 feet, 

 and can be taken up for cleaning. There is no excuse for floors being 

 so wet or sloppy that the workers must wear rubbers, which is some- 

 times the case. All side walls, partitions, ceilings, and supports should 

 be smooth, to admit of easy cleaning. Preferably they should be 

 light colored and, as far as possible, of such material as can be washed 

 with a hose, as this is the easiest method of cleaning or of applying 

 whitewash. Some factories need to be divided by partitions to pre- 

 vent unnecessary heating by steam from the cookers. In other cases 

 the room where the material ready for the can is kept should be 

 separated from the rooms in which the preparation is going on, in 

 order to protect it from dust. That part of the factory in which 

 prepared material is in any way exposed should be screened to keep 

 out flies and dust. The latter precaution is often of greater impor- 

 tance than the former, for during the working period the moving of 

 machinery and escaping steam will drive away insects. 



The tables used in the preparation of foods should be plain and 

 of a material that is easily cleaned. There should be no sharp angles 



