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10 BULLETIN 569, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
are carried out they pass under water sprays which give them a final 
rinsing. 
(7) The air-blast or geyser washer works on the same general 
principle as the preceding type, but produces the agitation by blasts 
of air entering the tank at or near the bottom. 
(g) In the cascade washer the tomatoes are carried up a tight- 
bottomed conveyor inclined at an angle of 30° to 50°. Near the 
top are the inlets for water which emit a sufficient amount to produce 
a vigorous flow down over the ascending stream of tomatoes. Al- 
though it is a good rinser, it is not sufficient alone to remove 
thoroughly the sticky soil from the fruit. 
SORTING. 
ITS IMPORTANCE. 
A careful consideration of the causes of failure in making clean, 
sound, sanitary tomato products shows clearly that more difficulty is 
experienced in effecting satisfactory washing, prompt handling, and 
efficient sorting than in any of the other phases of the manufactur- 
ing process. Sorting is the most important of these operations, in 
which the judgment of the workman plays a considerable part. 
Satisfactory washing is largely a question of proper operation of a 
mechanical device. This may be said also of many of the other 
operations about the factory, but so far no mechanical contrivance 
for separating the decayed from the good parts of the tomatoes has 
been placed upon the market. This operation must still be performed 
principally by hand. Although some washers, if properly con- 
structed and operated, will assist in removing the badly soft-rotted 
tomatoes, efficient hand sorting must be employed if a uniformly 
good, sound product is to be obtained. 
Experience has shown that in factories where the tomatoes are 
used only for peeling stock and where all the trimmings are thrown 
away sorting is an unnecessary expense. In the making of pulp of 
any kind, however, efficient sorting is absolutely necessary. Other- 
wise there can be no assurance of producing a uniformly sound 
product with low counts of microorganisms. 
The conditions observed and the results obtained in various fac- 
tories show that there is little, if any, choice between sorting the 
tomatoes before and after washing. Some of the best, as well as some 
of the poorest, results were obtained in factories where one or the 
other of these methods was employed. Approximately two-thirds 
of the plants visited during the seasons of 1915 and 1916 that did 
any sorting at all were using the wet method, and one-third the dry 
method. In order to remove clinging pieces of partially decayed 
tomatoes, the tomatoes always should be subjected to a washing or 
