to the "Special Treasury Agent in Charge" at the Customs District nearest to the operations.

For this purpose use number 21⁄2 cans; fill them three quarters full. Have them sealed immediately while hot. Label cans with the firm name and name of factory. Date samples drawn; give supposed density of sirup; do not cook the samples; ship immediately, as the sirup will spoil if held. These samples should be taken direct from service tank in the sirup room. One complete line of samples, one of each density in use on the day they are drawn, should be sent. These samples for polariscopic test may be limited to three complete lines during the year.

The sirup maker will make a daily report to the cost department showing the amount of sugar and salt received in the sirup room, the amount used for the day and the amount left on hand at the close of the day. It will also show the number of gallons of sirup of each per cent carried over from the day before and the number of gallons on hand at the close of the day. It will also show the number of empty sacks delivered and on hand. As empty sacks, inside and outside sacks, are worth from three to ten cents each, care should be used to see that none are wasted. The sirup room should not be allowed to deliver any empty sacks to anyone without an order from the superintendent.

In making brine for asparagus, peas and other vegetables the regular sirup grade tank can be used. Water and salt are the only two elements needed for the brine. The water should be as pure as possible and especially free from iron and lime. Iron in the water, in excess quantities, causes discoloration in the brine, while the presence of lime in the water makes it difficult to secure the proper tenderness in the processing.

The salt should be as pure as can be obtained and should never be used if the analysis shows it to be below 98 per cent pure salt.

The best way to make up salt solutions of any desired percentage is to figure from the basis of one pound of salt to 121⁄2 gallons of water, which will make a one per cent brine. As a gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds it will be easy to calculate the gallons or other measure of water necessary. Illustration: A 15 per cent brine is desired. The brine when

made will contain 15 per cent salt and 85 per cent water. The water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon, therefore 85 pounds will represent 10.19 gallons of water. Then 10.19 gallons of water and 15 pounds of salt will make a 15 per cent brine.

Ocean water tests 12° by salometer and contains 3.18 per cent salt and has a specific gravity of 1.021. For peas a salt brine of 23 pounds of salt to 100 gallons of water is used. This makes 834 pounds of water and 23 pounds of salt, which is a 2.68 per cent brine.

Sweet brine sometimes used on high-grade peas contains 15 pounds of salt and 18 pounds of sugar to every 100 gallons of water.

For spinach a brine of 29 pounds of salt to 100 gallons of water is used. This is a 3.36 per cent brine.

For asparagus use a brine of 22 pounds salt to every 100 gallons water, or a 2.60 per cent brine. Some 'canners advocate a brine of 2 per cent for asparagus.

This department follows the siruping department in the factory arrangement. The size of floor space occupied by the

processing department should be 100 by 75 feet. There should be no second floor over the cook room, as it is important to allow the free escape of steam arising from the exhaust boxes and cookers.

This is the most important department of the entire organization. Upon the proper exhausting for sterilization and the proper processing depend the success of the pack. Carelessness in processing will result in the loss of thousands of cans of finished product in the warehouse through swells caused by fermentation due to living organisms which would have been destroyed by proper treatment in processing.

The cans after being filled with sirup pass into the exhaust box, which is steam heated from 160° to 200°. They remain in this exhaust about 61⁄2 minutes (some canners believe in a shorter exhaust than 61⁄2 minutes, but this time has been used successfully by some of the best canners in California) and emerge thoroughly sterilized with all air driven out of the can by the steam. From the exhaust box the cans go into closing machines which seal the covers on, after which they pass into the cooker and receive the proper cook, which, of course, depends upon the variety and condition of ripeness of the fruit. After coming out of the cooker the cans pass through a bath of cold running water known as the cooler. This cooling stops the cook of the contents of the can and ends the process of the cook room.

The cook room is in charge of the cook room foreman and he should be a man well versed in all the details of the canning business.

He should thoroughly understand every machine in his department, be able to take it apart, repair it and put it together again.

He should have under him an assistant to attend to the processing details, and this man should be thoroughly reliable, wide awake and an intelligent worker and, most important of all, he should thoroughly understand the technical and the scientific problems arising in the processing of fruits and vegetables.

The hours of labor in the cook room are long. It is the last department to close for the night.

The division of labor in the cook room is as follows:

"Double Seamers," or those employees having charge of the double seamers or closing machines. If these machines are operated properly one man can take care of two machines. Labor on "Cookers and Retort" is that which is employed to take care of the operating of the cookers and retorts. "Foreman," the head of the department. "Processor," the person in charge of the processing, or cooking.

All leaks discovered by the can testers are thrown to one side and sent back to the leak mender, who sorts them over, mends such as can be mended, and those that cannot be are cut open and the contents put into gallon cans for pie fruit. Those cans which are mended are first vented (a hole jabbed into the can) and recooked, the hole then soldered and the can sent back to the warehouse, where it is usually thrown down one or two grades from its original grading. Those employees engaged in sorting and mending these leaks are charged to "Sorting and Mending," while those engaged in cutting open and refilling the cans are charged to "Cutting and Refilling" and those engaged in cooking the vented cans and in reprocessing cans which have been improperly processed are charged to "Reprocessing." Employees, if any, engaged in keeping the floor of the cook room clean and in picking up damaged cans which have been thrown about the department will be charged to "Porters and Sweepers."

As the cans of finished product come out of the coolers an employee takes them off the carrier and places them on wooden trays holding twelve number 21⁄2 cans. He then piles these trays on the floor twelve high, making six cases per pile. The employees of the can-stacking department then truck these piles to the cooling floor. All labor on the end of the coolers should be charged to the cook room under "Traying Off."

The factory superintendent will cause to be kept a daily record of all cans smashed and destroyed throughout the plant. Small blackboards will be put in each department for the purpose of tallying this damage, and the tallying should be conscientiously performed. One blackboard should be for the canning tables, one for the siruping machines, one for the exhaust boxes, one for the closing machines, one for the

filling machines and one for miscellaneous. Record will also be kept of all glass containers smashed and broken.

The tally clerk should visit each blackboard every morning and take off the number of smashed cans tallied and then clean off the board. He will then make up the record of such damage and send in to the cost department of the main office.

This report will be used to check the efficiency of the machines and the carelessness of the operators. At the end of the season it will be used to determine the actual number of cans that have been used, including the waste.

The "Cans and Glass Smashed Report" is a very simple form printed on a sheet 81⁄2 by 10 inches. The record of the cans smashed occupies the upper half of the sheet. Twelve lines, a quarter of an inch apart, are ruled across the sheet. Then at the left a 21⁄2-inch column is ruled off in which is printed, on the horizontal lines, the following in the order given: Canning tables; sirupers; exhaust boxes; closing machines; cookers; filling machines; miscellaneous; then total for the day; forwarded from yesterday; and total to date. Next to this column will be twelve columns one-half inch each which will be headed with the various sizes of cans used.

The form will then be filled out with the cans of each size smashed in each department each day, and the last report will always show the total number of cans of each size smashed up to date. A recap can be made at the end of the season showing the number of cans of each size smashed by the various machines. Faulty machines are easily located by these reports.

If glass containers are used for catsup, or other products, a similar form on which to record the breakage can be printed on the lower half of the sheet. The breakage to be checked will usually be: In crates; washing machines; bottling machines; filling machines; labeling machines; miscellaneous; and then the total for the day; forward from yesterday; and total to date.

At the close of the season the recap of these reports will be used to balance the can and glass stock records.

Exhausting Processing

In the treatment of the subject of exhausting and processing the first thing to impress on the mind of the reader is