Most tomatoes are delivered to the factory with the stems on, but I know of one plant where they are all received stemless, and the quality of the pulp made from them simply cannot be beat. There surely must be an undesirable taste imparted by all these green stems in the cooking process. Of course, where the cold pulping process is used, that is, the tomatoes pulped cold directly after sorting and washing, these stems are eliminated before any cooking is done. In the hot pulping process, however, and when the tomatoes are put in a crusher instead of a pulp machine, the stems are cooked along with the rest of the pulp. The operator of the plant referred to above pays a bonus of a dollar a ton to his contractors for having the tomatoes delivered stemless, and he believes he gets that dollar back and more, too, in the price he gets for his product, which is very fancy. CHAPTER II WASHING AND SORTING Washing and Sorting Equipment A great many outfits for washing and sorting tomatoes have been placed on the market, some of which have many good points, and others are very inadequate. The type of washer best adapted to one plant may not be the best for another one. If tomatoes are grown on clay ground a friction washer is necessary, while for fruits grown on sandy soil it is very infrequent that much friction is needed to properly clean the tomatoes. As to sorting belts, as a rule one type will serve as well in one place as in another. A majority of the sorting belts used are subject to many criticisms; some are too narrow, some too short, some travel at a speed of 100 feet or more per minute, while others move as slowly as 10 feet per minute. The latter speed is much better than the former, although both are extremes, 25 feet per minute being about right. Rotary Washer