tice it is rapid and ideal for cleanliness. The same method is also used for other berries.

"The strawberry needs a good sirup to develop its flavor fully and to hold it. The practice of kettle cooking is followed by a few careful packers. The berries and sugar are placed in a copper-jacketed kettle and heated slowly to the boiling point. A special dipper is used to lift out just enough solid fruit to each can, so that the sirup may be added afterwards to make the proper fill. The object is to give a can with more solid fruit. With some packers there is a loss of fruit juice, and this is used for flavoring sirups. There is a distinct difference here in the object sought, 'the full can' being the aim of some, while others strive to get all the juice out as a primary product and can the remaining solids as whole fruit. The strawberry undergoes a marked change in weight and in volume, due to the action of heat and sirup.

"The strawberry is subject to more shrinkage than any other fruit. Experiments showed cans with light sirups 10°, 20°, and 30° to cut out less than 50 per cent, and with sirups of 40°, 50° and 60° the cans cut out about one-third."

The sirup used in packing strawberries is as follows: Fancy 55%, choice 40%, standard 25%, seconds 10%. The cut-out of the sirup will be fancy 30, choice 25, standard 16, seconds 12 and water grades 9 per cent.

When filled with sirup the cans are exhausted at 180° F. for small cans and 190° F. for No. 10 cans and processed at 212° F. as follows: No. 1 cans exhaust for 4 min., and process for 6 min.; No. 21⁄2 cans exhaust for 61⁄2 min. and process for 12 min.; No. 10 cans exhaust for 10 min. and process the sirup grades for 20 min., and the pie grades for 40 min.

The production in the factory should be 60 No. 21⁄2 cans per 100 pounds of fruit and 50 cases per ton with 20 pounds of fruit required to pack one dozen No. 21⁄2 cans. The actual loss in packing in the factory should not exceed 26 per cent, though this does not include the shrinkage in the cans during processing.

A description of the varieties of strawberries best suited to canning purposes follows:

BRANDYWINE: Large and very productive; sweet, well formed and of a rich, glowing crimson color, which permeates

almost to the center. Ideal for dessert and canning and preserving. Medium to late.

OREGON: A vigorous grower, fruit of medium to large size; good color and texture; flavor sweet and delicious.

LONGWORTH: Fruit large, roundish at base; color light crimson; flesh firm, scarlet; flavor rich, briskly acid. Valuable for preserving; very productive.

NOTES ON OLIVES

Compiled in part from data issued by the University of California

The greatest olive-growing countries in the world are Spain and Italy. France grows the olive to some extent along the Mediterranean Sea, and Northern Africa produces

to some extent.

The olives produced in Europe are used exclusively for green pickles and for olive oil. Practically no ripe olives are packed mainly because the European olive cannot be allowed to ripen sufficiently to produce a good ripe olive as it becomes subject to the attack of insects as it ripens.

The production of ripe olives is confined principally to the States of California and Arizona, in the United States. The olive tree acreage of these two states is placed at 40,000 acres.

The two best varieties of olives grown in these states are the Mission and the Manzanillo. Other varieties are the Ascolano and the Sevillano. The Mission variety is small but possesses a good rich flavor and firm texture. Almost 90% of all olives produced in California is the Mission variety. The Manzanilla is next in desirability to the Mission for ripe pickling. It is larger, ripens fifteen days before the Mission and is of very good quality though being softer in flesh it is somewhat more difficult to handle in the factory. The Sevillanos and the Ascolano varieties are larger than either of the other two and while used for ripe olive pickling are more suitable for the green olive. It is these two varieties that produce the Queen Olives of Europe. For the production of ripe olives the fruit must not be picked from the tree until perfectly ripe and the greatest care must be exercised in handling it to prevent bruising. The fruit is picked entirely by hand and is very costly, often

costing the grower fifty dollars per ton, or 21⁄2 cents per pound for the picking alone.

When picked the fruit is placed in lug boxes and care must be used to see that the boxes do not fall into one another which would bruise the fruit. It is usual to nail strips across the boxes to prevent this.

The picking starts about the first of October and lasts through until heavy frosts of early winter when the fruit becomes frozen, and is then fit only for use in making low grade oil.

When the fruit arrives at the factory it is placed in barrels and covered with salt brine, using about fifty gallons of water and 10 pounds of salt. This will preserve it until ready for pickling.

The pickling is done in a series of tanks using one tank for each grade.

The ripe olive as it comes from the tree is extremely bitter and this bitterness must be destroyed, this being accomplished by the use of lye as described in the pickling process. The flavor of the olive is brought out by the brine used.

DIRECTIONS FOR PICKLING

First grade the olives for size. Then divide them into two lots, grading for color by hand. Put the green and half-ripe fruit in one lot and the black fruit in another.

Put enough water into the tank to prevent bruising when the fruit is put in. (This water must be drained off before the lye solution is poured in.)

Cover the olives with a solution of 14 ounces of lye to each gallon of water.

Stir this liquid occasionally to prevent the lye settling to the bottom of the tank.

Drain this solution off after about 40 hours and leave the fruit exposed to the air for another 40 hours.

Take great care to turn the fruit every few hours while exposed to the air in order to equalize oxidation, otherwise the fruit will be spotted.

Then cover the fruit again with a solution of lye, the same percentage as above, for about the same length of time and expose to the air again for about 35 hours, but while the fruit is exposed to the air this second time be very careful

to see that the lye does not get too close to the pit. (These instructions will vary according to the ripeness of the fruit. The above instructions apply more to the ripe, black olive than the green spotted ones.)

Wash thoroughly for a week or ten days, changing the water twice daily, to remove all traces of the lye.

When thoroughly washed, cover with a solution of salt and water (2 ounces of salt to each gallon of water). If a strong solution of salt and water is used at first the fruit will shrink.

After two days drain this salt water off and replace with another solution composed of 6 ounces of salt to each gallon of water (371⁄2 pounds to 100 gallons water. 4% brine).

Drain this solution off after about a week. Then cover with a third solution composed of 14 ounces of salt to each gallon of water (871⁄2 pounds of salt to 100 gallons water, 9%% to 10% brine). After ten days the olives are ready

to can.

The cans are filled with hot brine having a temperature of 190° F. and are then run through the exhaust box at 185° (some canners do not use the exhaust) and are then run into the retorts and processed at 240° F. for 40 minutes.

The grading of ripe olives like the grading of peas is not uniform with the packers. The most popular grading is that of the California Olive Association which is as follows: The screens are in sixteenths.

Another grading used by big packers is as follows:

Olives are usually put up only in three sizes of cans, pints, quarts and gallons (No. 10), though occasionally they are also packed in the sauce and the number one tall can.

Pints are packed 48 to the case; quarts, 24; No. 1 tall, 48; sauce, 72 and No. 10, 6 cans.

The weights of ripe olives are as follows: Net weight of olives without brine: pints 9 ounces; quarts, 1 pound 2 ounces; No. 10 cans, 4 pounds 6 ounces.

Assignment No. 2
VEGETABLES

"The distinctive features in the canning of vegetables are that they require heavier processing than fruits, and for sterilization need a higher temperature, or a longer time, or both. Another feature is the substitution of mechanical methods for hand labor. Fruits require a large amount of hand labor in the preparation and in the filling of the cans, while with the majority of vegetables almost every step can be accomplished by a machine."

U. S. Food Inspection Decision No. 173.

1. Canned vegetables are properly matured and prepared fresh vegetables, with or without the addition of potable water, salt, and sugar, as specified in the separate definitions for the several kinds of canned vegetables, sterilized by heat, with or without previous cooking in vessels from which they take up no injurious substance, and kept in suitable, clean, hermetically sealed containers.