When you consider the extreme rapidity with which these germs multiply, the folly of allowing tomato peelings or tomato juice to be very slowly conveyed to a large tank for an hour or more before the steam is turned on becomes apparent. Much has been written about the rapidity of bacterial reproduction, and yet extreme delay in working up tomato stock continues in many plants, and we frequently see bacteria counts of a hundred million or more per cubic centimeter, all of which could be easily avoided if the packer would just make up his mind to get to the bottom of the cause and apply the simple remedy. Just as an illustration we will say that we are putting up trimming pulp, and the tomato receipts are rather light and the peelers are working slowly, or that there aren’t many peelers working. The trimmings are passed along on a belt conveyor where they go to a bucket carrier and are lifted to a large cypress tank with a coil. They drop into the tank slowly, and it may take two hours for the coil to be covered so that the steam can be turned on; or after a foot or two of the trimmings have been put in the tank it is lunch time, and it is an hour before the filling of the tank continues. This may make it three hours before these peelings are brought to a boil. Suppose at the time those peelings go into the tank they contain enough bacteria so that if they were cooked at once, the pulp would run 10 million to the cubic centimeter. This is very probable. However, they are not cooked at once and at the end of 30 minutes you have peelings which, when condensed and cycloned, would show close to 20 million bacteria. In an hour the first peelings which entered that tank would yield 40 million, and in 1½ hrs., 80 million. This is on the basis of the bacteria reproducing themselves every 30 minutes. Even if they multiply much more slowly than that you can see that in the course of a little over an hour you are getting into dangerous ground, and in the course of two or three hours the bacteria have multiplied to such an extent that the product would almost be sure to be condemned if it was picked up by an inspector. If the tomatoes had quite a few soft spots in them when they were peeled it is very likely that the peelings would yield 20 million bacteria if worked up immediately, and then if delay of an hour or more comes on top of that you can see where you will be on the bacteria count. The yeasts are also probably multiplying at the same time, and the molds are growing to some extent.