8 BULLETIN 569, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



were not sorted out. Tests made for the percentage of rot in the 

 sorted stock showed it to vary from about 0.1 per cent to over 2.5 per 

 cent of decayed material. The apron was moving at a rate of 78 feet 

 per minute. During the three days that tests were made at the plant 

 several changes were instituted, among which were slowing down 

 the rate of the apron, securing more women for the inspection 

 service, and dividing them into squads. One squad did nothing but 

 sort out the spotted tomatoes and put them in buckets the contents of 

 which were trimmed by the second set to remove the rot. Tests on 

 the efficiency of sorting under the changed conditions gave a range 

 of from no appreciable amount of rot to 1.3 per cent. 



Factory No. 3. 



A visit made to still another plant, some of the product of which 

 had been condemned the previous season, showed that the tomatoes 

 were passing through one of the washers and scalders at the rate of 

 490 bushels per hour. Five young boys ? between the ages of 13 and 

 15, were working at the sorting table. A test of the stock being 

 fed to the sorting table gave about 16 per cent of rotten material. 

 A similar test after sorting gave about 7.5 per cent. All the waste 

 from the tomatoes removed at the peeling tables went into the 

 cyclones for pulp making. 



WASHING. 



During the last few years various systems and devices have been 

 tested under factory conditions and a mass of data has been collected 

 bearing upon so many of the practical questions concerned in the 

 production of a clean, sanitary product that it is proposed to discuss 

 here the more important of these operations. 



Any one familiar with the canning industry must have noticed 

 the changes that have taken place in recent years and the improve- 

 ments that have been made in tomato-washing machinery. The choice 

 of a proper washing system requires a knowledge of the specific 

 conditions under which the system is to be operated in each case, 

 since a system that works satisfactorily under one set of conditions 

 may be inadequate elsewhere. 



In some parts of the country tomatoes are grown on a soil which 

 has an abundance of sand in it and little clay. Tomatoes grown on 

 such land are fairly readily cleaned by a good spraying apron 

 washer. In other parts of the country the soil consists of a sticky 

 clay loam, which clings so tenaciously as to make its removal by 

 the spraying system alone very difficult. In such cases some sort 

 of rubbing method is highly desirable. It is under such conditions 

 that the rotary washers are efficient. Factory owners sometimes have 

 been found who have been deceived as to the efficiency of their 



