34 DEHYDRATION OF FKUITS AJSD \ imnXAtsi^ma. 



usually found in the nitrogenous foods, like meats, fish, and cheese, 

 and anything nitrogenous. 



Senator Eansdell. Not so much on vegetables ? 



Dr. Alsberg. It is rare on vegetables, although it occasionally does 

 occur, particularly with articles like beans, which, again, are nitro- 

 genous, and occasionally on com; but it is very unusual in canned 

 vegetables, and when it does occur it is usually on meats or similar 

 products. 



Senator Eansdell. Doctor, would you practically avoid that dan- 

 ger of ptomaine poisoning if we adoj)ted generally this process of 

 drying? Could you answer that question offhand? 



Dr. AiSBEEG. Ptomaine poisoning has not anything to do with the 

 canning process. It is a question of spoiling. If the material that 

 is put into the can is sound and the canning is done properly, then 

 there is no danger. In the same way in drying, if the material is 

 spoiled, then drying will not necessarily make it harmless. The 

 cfuestion is whether the material is spoiled or allowed to be spoiled 

 in the process. 



Mr. Fairchild. Just one other fact I would like to insert in the 

 record: The Tuslcegee Institute has been using sweet potatoes in 

 the manufacture of its bread for the institution and for the little 

 village of Tuskegee, which has 500 inhabitants, not connected with 

 the institution, making in all perhaps 2,000 people. This sweet 

 potato is either used in the form of flour or mashed at a rate which 

 means a saving of 200 pounds of flour a day. Dr. Carver, of that 

 institution, came up here with a most remarkable line of samples 

 of sweet-potato flour, which were made with rather primitive tools, 

 but which showed conclusively the possibilities of these sweet-potato 

 products. I have brought some of them here, and, as these testi- 

 monials indicate, there is no question about the quality of food 

 value and flavor of this sweet-potato product. 



Senator Noeris. Before you leave the stand I wanted to ask you a 

 little more about the practical method by which this drying can 

 be brought about. As I understand you the practical method that 

 you advocate is that there should be comparatively large plants 

 established rather than small individual plants. 



Mr. Faiechild. As large as the area which they could control 

 would warrant. 



Senator Noeris. The idea is that if we could establish that it is the 

 practical way of drying these vegetables to have large establish- 

 ments, then we run at once into the danger of combinations, the same 

 as we have now in meats and in the mills, so that if we could have 

 a small unit that is practicable, perhaps not an individual producer 

 have it, but something near that, we would avoid the danger of 

 control of the output by combinations and monopolies, which we 

 are liable to run into if we must operate in large plants. 



Mr. Faiechild. There is no question but that the small plant can 

 turn out a beautiful product. These products you see here are the 

 product of small plants. 



Senator Noeris. How much do they cost? 



Mr. Fairchild. I do not know what this particular plant cost, but 

 I know that plants costing $5,000 turn out beautiful products. In 

 fact, with some of them it does not require nearly as much of a plant 



