14 BULLETIN 569, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
with unusual care if the trimmings are to be used for pulp, about 
one-eighth as many sorters as peelers must be employed. 
Various methods have been tried unsuccessfully in different plants 
in the hope of avoiding the labor and expense involved in a thorough 
sorting of the stock before it passes to the peeling tables. An account 
of the least successful methods follows. 
One method consists in furnishing each peeler with two buckets, 
one for sound trimmings, the other for decayed portions. The 
peelers are paid only for the peeled tomatoes. Hence, very little 
or no attention is given to sorting the good from the bad portions 
of the trimmings. Even if the sorting were done carefully there 
would still be the objection that the good portions had been con- 
taminated by contact with the partially rotten portions during the 
handling after scalding and before peeling. 
Another method tried by some manufacturers is to rinse the trim- 
mings themselves. This is unsatisfactory for the following reasons: 
The washing results in a great loss of material; the trimmings on 
account of their bulk can not be washed effectively; and no washing 
system has been devised which will remove certain types of decay. 
A third method is to inspect the trimmings after they leave the 
peeling tables and to remove the bad portions. A small proportion 
can be picked out in this manner, but the amount is so small that the 
system is of very slight value. After a large number of cut pieces, 
such as occur in trimmings, have been dumped together it is a 
physical impossibility to sort out any but the more solid portions, 
such as large pieces and those of dry or black rot. The pieces of 
soft rot become mashed and contaminate the whole mass and can 
not be removed. : 
UNIFORMITY AND RATE OF FEEDING. 
The rate at which the tomatoes are fed upon the apron is an im- 
portant factor in the efficiency of sorting. Tomatoes frequently are 
fed so irregularly that it is impossible to obtain good results. 
Observations were taken at several plants for the purpose of 
determining what variation occurs in feeding the tomatoes to the 
sorting apron. The data from one of these inspections are given in 
Table 3. 
TABLE 3.—Variation in rate of dumping tomatoes into the washer. 
j 
Time. Bushels. || Time. Bushels. 
PA) Next Gominutes:: 22 i ste ie Bee, 
Oo} Next lh minutes. ok an etn ee eos 
Next'2 minutess--i-- 25. Seeger Ad 9° il Nextilsimmutes®. |" ete ek eens 
Next minute. 2). a > Bt eee et 0 ll Next iminites = 0.2 26 oe ea ee 
i 
or Or O 
Next I'minute!:: 232. eee Next 9 mimitests! 34 22, teh. ie ee ot 
