The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-05-29
SEND AND GET 1T
THE BULLETIN ABOUT CANNING
FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.
1t. Gives Information That May be
Used in Declaring Independence of
the Canning Factories.

CSeQ III DcciuIliS independence VI
the Canning Factories.
A bulletin just issued by the de-
partment of agriculture gives very
important information for those
who are interested in the business
Of canning fruits and vegetables at
home The bulletin is numbered
250, and may be had by addressing
a request for it. giving the number
to the department of agriculture at
Washington. 1t gives information
that may be used in declaring in
dependence Of the canning factories,
which, as stated by this bulletin,
do not always take the proper care
Of the vegetables. The decayed and
refuse portions are not SO carefully
removed as they should be and the
requisite degree of cleanliness is not
observed in packing.
Every housewife may run
miniature canning factory in her
own Kitchen" says the author of
this pamphlet, "and on the farm this
is especially economical and desir-
able, the economy being les pro-
nounced in the case of city dwellers.
who must buy their fruit and vege-
tables. Enough vegetables annually
go to waste from the average farm
garden to supply the table during
the entire winter.
"But usually the farmers wife
cans her tomatoes, preserves her
fruits, and leaves her most whole
some and nutritious vegetables to
decay in the field, under the impress
sion that it is impossible to keep
them. This is a great mistake. 1t
is just as easy to keep corn or string
beans as it is to keep tomatoes,
if you know how.
''The art of canning or preserving
in one form or another is almost as
old as history ITSELF The early Chi
nese possessed this secret long be-
fore the. era of modern civilization,
but the reason which lay back of
the art have only recently been ex-
planned.
"The secret of canning or preserv-
ing lies in complete sterilization.
The air we breathe, we water We
drink, all fruits and vegetables, are
teeming with minute forms of life,
which We call bacteria, or molds,
or germs. These germs are prac-
tically the sole cause OF decomposi-
ton or rotting. The exclusion of
air from canned articles, which was
formerly supposed to be so impor-
tant, is unnecessary, provided the air
is sterile or free from germs. The
exclusion of air is necessary only
because in excluding it we exclude
the germ. In other words, air which
has been sterilized or. freed from
germs by heat or mechanical means
can be passed continually over can
ned articles without affecting them
in the least. If glass. bottle is filled
with some vegetable which ordinari-
ly spoils very rapidly-for instance,
string beans-and, instead of a
cork, it is stopped with thick plug
of raw cotton and heated until all
germ life is destroyed, the beans will
keep indefinitely. The air can readi-
ly pass in and out Of the bottle
through the plug of cotton, while the
germs from the outside air cannot
pass through, but are caught and
held in its meshes. This shows that
the germs and their spores or seeds
are the only cause of soilage that we
have to deal with in canning.
Even after sterilization is COM
plete the work is not yet done. The
spores Of bacteria are SO light that
they float about in the air and settle
upon almost everything. The air is
alive with them. A bubble of air
no larger than a pen may contain
hundreds of them. Therefore it is
necessary after sterilizing a jar of
vegetables to exclude carefully all
outside air. If one bacterium or one
OF its spores should get in and find
a resting place, in course of few
days the contents of the jar would
spoil. This is why the exclusion of
air is an important factor, not be-
cause the air itself does any damage
but because of the ever-present bac-
terra.
All of this may seem new fashion,
ed and unnecessary to some house
keepers. The writer has often heard
it said: My grandmother never
did this, and she was the most sue
cessful woman at canning that
ever knew. Possibly so, but it must
be remembered that grandmother
made her preserves-delicious they
were, too-and canned her toma-
toes, but did not attempt to keep the
most nutritious and most delicately
favored vegetables, such as lima
beans, string beans, okra, aspara-
gus, or even corn.
There are a great many so-called
preserving powders on the market.
These are sold not only under ad-
vertised trade names but by drug
gists and peddlers everywhere. In
the directions for use the housewife
is told to fill the jar with the fruit
or vegetables to be canned, to cover