FAEMEKS' INSTITUTES, 655 



Many of us have passed through these conditions, in some cases year 

 after year, and each season, at harvest, wonder where we could find a 

 market that would return us a fair profit. Many may have wished that a 

 canning factory was accessible; some may have tried to form a stock 

 company in town; but have we ever seriously considered the benefits of a 

 factory on the farm. 



While the canning industry has not been long established, less than 

 fifty years, the farmers in many sections regard it as a certain market for 

 their produce, and aid and encourage the continuance of the factory by 

 growing all the produce that can be successfully handled. 



Twenty-five years ago Baltimore controlled by far the gTeater part of 

 the canning industry in the United States. They virtually thought that 

 they not only owned, but had a claim, something in the nature of a 

 divine right, to the business. This was so strong that every factory that 

 started elsewhere, was regarded as poaching upon the rights and privi- 

 leges of the Baltimore packers. But, little by little, the domestic demand 

 was supplied by the product of a local factory, for there was scarcely any 

 section of the United States where the soil was not fertile enough and 

 the population large enough to justify the establishment of a cannery, 

 until factories sprang up all over the country; business multiplied, the 

 variety of goods packed increased, the market extended, and today we 

 find factories everywhere, extended even to the farm itself, in some cases 

 in the midst of large commercial orchards. 



One of the leading canners' trade papers of the country has this to say 

 upon the subject: "The establishment of small canning industries every- 

 where would tend to equalize prices, and make it possible for the pro- 

 ducer to utilize his entire crop, however unusually plentiful it might be, 

 or whatever chance hindrance to the marketing of his produce while 

 fresh might arise. This is the coming industry which will direct the de- 

 velopment of farming methods, become the safeguard of tlfe fai'mer, by 

 equalizing his receipts and protecting him from loss, and stand to the 

 whole country in the place of the well-filled pantry and vegetable cellar 

 of the provident and forehanded householder. 



The establishment of a factory on the farm benefits the farmers of a 

 neighborhood by furnishing a good and sure market for their produce. 

 Though it may seem at first that the price received is very low, yet when 

 we take into consideration how, and what amount is handled we will see 

 that the farmers usually receive as much by selling to the canners as 

 selling on the open market. 



Another benefit will be derived by encouraging the growing of crops 

 that are better adapted to their soils, other than corn, wheat and hay. 

 A factory on the farmsvUl also be of benefit to a neighborhood by giving 

 employment, at good wages, to the unemployed in the vicinity. 



A factory on the farm would also bi'ing labor into the neighborhood, 

 thus furnishing the farmers good help when the factory was idle. 



