Mo. 6. DEPA iri'.Mk'NT (JF A( IRICUl.TUHR 371 



GROWING FKUITS AND VE(JETAB1.ES FOR CANNING FAG 



TORIES. 



BY Prof. G. C, Bt-rz. State College, l-'a. 



The business of eanniug food products is of very moderu develop- 

 ment. It is true, that in an experimental way, corn was canned in 

 Portland, Me., in 1840; that the first pack of fruit in hermetically 

 sealed tin cans was made in California in 1861; but it is also true 

 that in 1865 the entire pack of all kinds of canned goods in the State 

 of Maryland did not exceed 8,000 cases. In 1880 the total value for 

 vegetables and fruits put up in cans was $17,599,576; in 1890, $29,- 

 862,416; in 1900, $56,668,313. 



For pickles, preserves and sauces, the value in 1880 was |2,407,- 

 342; in 1890, |9,790,S55; in 1900, |21,507,046. 



Fruits and vegetables share about alike in this new industry, and 

 the list of canned articles includes nearly every kind of fruit and 

 most kinds of vegetables. 



Peaches, pears, plums, apricots, apples, pineapples, grapes, cher- 

 ries and all the different kinds of berries are all canned by tons. 



Tomatoes, corn, peas, beans, asparagus, beets, cabbage, sweet 

 potatoes, jjumpkins, squashes, spinach and okra, are all put up in 

 great quantities. The growing of these crops for the canning fac- 

 tories is not conducted by the market gardener and fruit grower 

 as we have generally regarded them, but by farmers who have been 

 induced by the prospects of larger profits to devote their best farm 

 land to the extensive culture of a vegetable or fruit crop. In some 

 sections of the country the new order of things has taken such a com- 

 plete possession of a community that nearly every farmer in a whole 

 county has become a horticultural specialist in the culture of toma- 

 toes, peas, sweet corn or some other canned crop. 



It is not an easy matter for farmers, particularly here in the East, 

 to modify their time-honored practices on their farms to the extent 

 indicated, for they are wedded to the customs of their fathers, and 

 regard with suspicion and misgivings all propositions to abolish an 

 old practice to make way for something they have not tried before. 



The western farmer has been more ready to adopt new sugges- 

 tions and grow new crops to conform to modern demands, and has 



