58 THE CANNING OF FOODS. 



other crops, and a single large cannery will use the product of 1,000 

 acres. One ketchup manufacturer takes the entire product from 

 more than 5,000 acres. A fair yield is 5 tons of fruit for an acre, but 

 good cultivation and fertilization sometimes brings this up to 20 tons 

 or more. Thirty-three bushels weigh about 1 ton. 



At harvest time the fruit must be picked every day, or every other 

 day, in order to insure collecting it when it is in its prime just 

 ripe, without green butts, and not overripe. It is preferable that 

 the tomatoes be put in crates, which are wide and flat rather than 

 deep, and which will hold not more than a bushel. They can be 

 delivered to the factory in better condition in the flat crates than 

 in the deep ones or in baskets, as the fruit will crush if piled in too 

 many layers. The arrival in good condition lessens the time re- 

 quired for peeling as well as the loss in parts cut away. The toma- 

 toes should be delivered to the factory promptly, as deterioration 

 begins soon upon standing. 



When the tomatoes are delivered at the factory they are weighed 

 and inspection should be made of each load. One crate is taken out 

 at random and dumped into a tank of water. All defective fruit can 

 be detected at once, picked out, weighed separately, and the load 

 docked accordingly. Rotten fruit can not be used and green fruit 

 must be held to ripen. The separation at the factory entails extra 

 expense in the inspection and sorting. The rotten fruit should not 

 have been picked and the green should have been left in the field; 

 the only way to reduce this waste to a mimimum is by means of a 

 system of dockage. 



The first step in manufacture should be proper sorting. This 

 can be done better by a few persons than by the many peelers. Toma- 

 toes which are green should be taken out and held in crates for one 

 or two days, as may be necessary, but small green spots can be cut 

 out by the peelers. The tomatoes with rot should be discarded. 

 Tomatoes which are small, rough, misshapen, and sound, but which 

 will not peel well, can be set aside for pulp. Such a separation will 

 lessen the work and waste in the factory and in the end be economical. 

 The sorting is best done upon a conveyer table, the tomatoes which 

 are passed being fed directly into the washer. 



The washing should be thorough and done without bruising or 

 crushing the fruit. It is preferable that the fruit be dropped into 

 a tank of water and rolled over and over gently, either by actually 

 turning the tomato or by strongly agitating the water, and then 

 spraying under a strong pressure as they emerge from the water. 

 This latter operation is of greater importance than is generally sup- 

 posed. As before stated, a comparatively large volume of water 

 without force behind it is far less efficacious than a much smaller 

 volume having force. The latter cuts the dirt and organisms off, 



