240 ALCOHOL, VINEGAR, SAUER KRAUT, TOBACCO, SILAGE, FLAX 
vinegar eels in abundance. ‘These latter are little worms that get 
into the vinegar from some source and find it a favorable locality 
for growth and multiplication. They probably injure the quality 
of the vinegar, although, so far as is known, they are harmless 
to one who may consume the vinegar. Their presence is, however, 
undesirable. All these troubles increase as the amount of acid 
decreases, for the miscellaneous bacteria and the vinegar eels 
cannot grow if the acidity is high, but they will grow when this 
acidity decreases. The reduction in acidity is commonly due to 
the action of bacteria and usually to the very kind of bacteria 
that originally produced it; for these organisms, after producing 
the acid, may cause a further oxidation which destroys it. Hence, 
it has been suggested that pasteurization of the vinegar for the 
purpose of destroying the bacteria and vinegar eels will enhance 
its keeping property. Whether there is any practical value in 
this procedure has not been yet determined by experience. 
SAUER KRAUT 
This is a food used so widely in Europe and coming to be so 
popular in this country that it may well be regarded as one of the 
most important of the minor farm products. It is made of cab- 
bage, slightly fermented and prevented from decay by lactic acid 
bacteria (Fig. 48). The cabbage leaves, after being washed, are 
shredded and packed in casks under pressure, to remove most of 
the moisture. In these casks a fermentation soon starts, which is 
two-fold. Yeasts that are present produce an alcoholic fermenta- 
tion, evolving gas that causes the whole mass to foam and froth. 
At the same time, the lactic acid bacteria, the same species ap- 
parently that sour milk, develop rapidly and cause the mass to 
sour. The bacterial growth is primarily in the juice squeezed out 
of the cabbage tissue, and not in the solid matter. As the mass 
becomes sour from the acid, the growth of all bacteria is checked. 
By this means the ordinary putrefactive organisms are prevented 
from producing the decay of the vegetable mass, as they would 
