Preserving at Home - A Book for the Home Economist #251069

In the preservation of fruit the most essential thing is to keep the fruit, as well as the utensils used, sterile. This should be observed from the earliest stage in the preparation Of the fruit to the final sealing and storing. To sterilize a substance or thing is to destroy all life and source of life in it. It is necessary to do more than exclude the air, for investigations of scientists, particularly Pasteur, have shown that it is not the oxygen of the air which causes fermentation, but bacteria and other microscopic organisms. Yeast and nearly all kinds of bacteria require oxygen, but certain species grow equally well without it, so that the exclusion of air is no protection if one Of these bacteria is sealed in the can.