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 iDrofits 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. 
