UTILIZATION OF WASTE SEED FROM THE TOMATO. 21 



Since no one pulping plant is likely to produce enough seed to 

 make it practicable to install the equipment necessary for crushing 

 the seed for oil, the most logical procedure, it seems, would be to 

 assemble the seed from the various pulping plants at some central 

 point where the necessary machinery could be installed. 



To get the seed to a central plant two courses are possible : (1) To 

 separate the seed at the pulping stations and send it to the utilization 

 center for drying, or (2) to separate and dry the seed at each of the 

 pulping stations. 



In the first case, where the wet seed is shipped directly to the cen- 

 tral plant for drying and crushing, several points are to be con- 

 sidered. The seed as it comes from the machine contains from 65 to 

 70 per cent of moisture ; hence, to assemble the wet seed at a central 

 plant would involve a heavy freight charge for hauling the moisture. 



The profits might be great enough to bear this expense if the place 

 for assembling the seed was not so far away from the producing cen- 

 ters as to consume too much time in transit, on account of the rapidity 

 of spoilage of the seed. Also, if shipped in less than carload lots, there 

 would be an increased freight charge. Since a 5,000-basket plant pro- 

 duces only about three-fourths of a ton of wet seed a day, fully three 

 weeks would elapse before a minimum carload shipment (15 tons) 

 could be ready. It has been found that spoilage over a short period 

 does not deleteriously affect the yield or quality of the oil, but a long 

 period would doubtless result disastrously. Stations within a short 

 hauling distance of the utilization center could, of course, ship the 

 wet seed. 



At smaller plants which produce less seed or which are situated at 

 greater distances it would be necessary to dry the seed before ship- 

 ment. Local conditions, therefore, would determine whether the 

 product of a given plant should be dried or shipped wet. 



Where the wet seed is shipped directly to the central plant to be 

 cleaned and dried, there should be proper and sufficient equipment to 

 handle the material readily as it arrives. It would be necessary to 

 have a conveyor to unload it from the car directly to the storage bins. 

 Thence it should go by means of chutes directly to the washing 

 cyclones, which should be of sufficient number and capacity to handle 

 as much seed as is produced by all the contributing pulping stations 

 at their peak production, which comes during the last week of August 

 and the first two weeks of September. In washing the seed it should 

 be mixed with about 8 or 10 times its weight of hot water and pumped 

 by centrifugal pumps directly into the washing cyclones, whence 

 it could be delivered to a conveyor which would carry it to the hop- 

 per of the moisture expeller. It might even be possible to eliminate 

 the cyclone washing of the seed by pumping it into a bin with ample 

 drainage and thence delivering it directly to the moisture expellers. 



