President Davidson: Right. We'd all like to go on with this, but we must really go on with the program, too. We will next hear something about pasteurization. The Production of Bacteria-Free Walnut Kernels will be discussed by Mr. Pease of West Virginia University. Mr. Pease.
Production of Bacteria-Free Walnut Kernels
ROGER W. PEASE, Assistant Hillculturist, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
Mr. Pease: Before I go into any detail about the construction of the pasteurizer, I am going to review the bacillus that causes the trouble very briefly. Most of you will know more about it than I do, but some of you may know less.
When the farmer takes the hulls from the black walnuts he generally spreads his hulled crop to dry almost anywhere. Rats will go over them, and these rats or mice infect the hulled walnuts with an organism called _Bacillus coli_ that is on the outside of the shell. They go from there to the cracking plant, go through the cracker which thoroughly mixes up the infected nuts with the clean ones. They go from there to the separator, which does a better job at spreading the bacteria. Then they go on the market. If they are shipped from one state to another they are subject to inspection by Federal authorities. If they find this organism in the kernels, they may at their discretion heave the whole shipment into the river. They don't always do it. They haven't worked out yet a definite scheme to follow. In other words, they will not tell us, "If your kernels have a certain number of these _B. coli_ in them we will let them by." As it reads, there should be not one organism there, and I can assure you that's almost impossible to get if a rat has crawled over those things.
Now, to get rid of poison ivy the best way is not to get it, and it's just the same with this organism. The place to get rid of it would be for the farmer to store the nuts to dry where the rats and mice cannot get to them and for the cracking plants to do the same. Unfortunately, this isn't done and sometimes isn't practicable. The next place to hit them would be before they are tumbled, that is, before the black powder on the outside of the shells is shaken off in a tumbler, or immediately after that to disinfect the shell without hurting the kernel.