ised by a chief technician, assisted by more academically unqualified assistants. Some research and development will also be carried out by the senior staff. A horticultural officer and two fieldsmen are also required WATER For the size of plant under review, the requirements for water washing, process use, boilers, etc, but excluding any fluming operations, will be of the order of 8 million litres per week of eight hour shifts. temp The quality of the water is important, and it is necessary to know the temporary and permanent hardness characteristics. It may be that the local supply is not entirely suitable for every kind of vegetable to be processed and some treatment may be necessary For example, peas require soft water for washing and blanching, as high calcium content in the supply has a toughening effect on the skins. In these circumstances a water softening plant will need to be installed to treat the water which is in contact with the peas in process. Conversely, potatoes, particularly when used for cubing or slicing, require a higher degree hardness in the processing water, and it is usually necessary to treat this with calcium chloride in the blanching process. Ideal water conditions are, therefore, unlikely to be found in many locations, and perhaps a supply with 8 degrees of hardness might be regarded as a fair average, requiring less treatment overall than most samples. Consideration of the water analysis should, therefore, be treated of some importance when choosing the factory site. Boiler water should be reasonably soft, to avoid scale formation but where hard water conditions apply, the supply will have to be treated hemically, or a base exchange softening plant installed. With the latter, some further organic or chemical treatment will be necessary to correct excess alkalinity, which is a feature of the base exchange method It is good boilerhouse practice to return all the available condensate from the processing plant, ie, from dryer steam batteries, blancher and lye peeler steam coils and space heating batteries, back to the hot well in the boilerhouse, so that the feed water supply is available at a high temperature There are several points in the factory where mains water can be conserved by recycling, particularly the washing plant. Care must be exercised here, however to ensure that recycled water is not contaminated and some in-plant chlorination will be necessary to implement this recycling systemproduct, and these are supervised by a chief technician, assisted by two or more academically unqualified assistants. Some research and development will also be carried out by the senior staff. A horticultural officer and two fieldsmen are also required. WATER For the size of plant under review, the requirements for water washing, process use, boilers, etc, but excluding any fluming operations, will be of the order of 8 million litres per week of eight hour shifts. The quality of the water is important, and it is necessary to know the temporary and permanent hardness characteristics. It may be that the local supply is not entirely suitable for every kind of vegetable to be processed and some treatment may be necessary. For example, peas require soft water for washing and blanching, as a high calcium content in the supply has a toughening effect on the skins. In these circumstances a water softening plant will need to be installed to treat the water which is in contact with the peas in process. Conversely, potatoes, particularly when used for cubing or slicing, require a higher degree of hardness in the processing water, and it is usually necessary to treat this with calcium chloride in the blanching process. Ideal water conditions are, therefore, unlikely to be found in many locations, and perhaps a supply with 8 degrees of hardness might be regarded as a fair average, requiring less treatment overall than most samples. Consideration of the water analysis should, therefore, be treated as of some importance when choosing the factory site. Boiler water should be reasonably soft, to avoid scale formation but, where hard water conditions apply, the supply will have to be treated chemically, or a base exchange softening plant installed. With the latter, some further organic or chemical treatment will be necessary to correct excess alkalinity which is a feature of the base exchange method. It is good boilerhouse practice to =turn all the available condensate from the processing plant, ie, from dryer steam batteries, blancher and lye peeler steam coils and space heating batteries, back to the hot well in the boilerhouse, so that the feed water supply is available at a high temperature. There are several points in the factory where mains water can be conserved by recycling, particularly the washing plant. Care must be exercised here, however, to ensure that recycled water is not contaminated, and some in-plant chlorination willbe necessary to implement this recycling system. 28