72 



One result is that Government have permitted me to 

 obtain a superior can-niakino^ plant of a character 

 determined by my enquiries at home in 1912, which 

 with the larger canning plant already in our hands, 

 will enable us during the current year to turn out 

 products which may be placed on the market for the 

 verdict of the public, for ascertaining both the correct 

 price and value of the several articles, and for the infor- 

 mation of those who may care to take up the business 

 either as an industrial or as a trade matter. The factory 

 will also serve as a place of complete instruction in 

 canning lines, where those interested may learn all 

 canning methods and precautions, the class and cost 

 of plant necessary, and the various recipes which we 

 have now more or less standardized ; this will open to 

 capitalists who seriously take the business in hand, all 

 the so-called " secrets of canning," and will provide a 

 healthy, instructed competition for the public favour, 

 and consequently the best classes of goods ; monopoly 

 in such matters is most undesirable since its very 

 secretiveness permits it to place goods of unknown and 

 sometimes undesirable character on the market and 

 at its own prices ; a public canning institution with 

 public instructors and inspectors will substitute publicity 

 for secrecy and mystery. During my enquiries in 

 Europe certain facts came to my knowledge which 

 convinced me of the need for perfect publicity, e.g., 

 products with — it was said — 90 per cent of sophistica- 

 tion by means of additions not necessarily unwholesome 

 or bad but not the genuine article ; this sophistication 

 is not possible where every detail of an industry may 

 be learnt by all who wish to compete for public favour, 

 so that manufacturers will necessarily be circumspect 

 in the methods and materials of their products. 

 Moreover, the existing and, still more, the improved 

 Government station, with its plant, experience, and 

 skilled instruction, will prevent all those losses of capital 

 and those risks to the public which would arise from 

 the intrusion of rash and hasty ignorance into this 

 seductive enterprise. 



12. It is certain that canning, properly conducted, 

 is a method eminently suited to the tropics, especially 

 for fish which so readily taints. The enormous develop- 

 ment of this industry in the United States is little studied 



