264 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



The permanence of a business dealing with such quantities eau- 

 uot be questioned. It may be remarked also that the total output 

 of the canning factories of this country in vegetables and fruits is 

 practically all consumed within our own boundaries. The foreign 

 shipments have been small, simply because the home consumption 

 has held all the goods in thie country. Tlie Trade, of Baltimore, 

 a journal for canners and grocers, in a weekly review of September, 

 1901, says: 



^'Meat has for many years been one of the steady articles of supply 

 which the new world has sent to the old. Fish in the form of salmon 

 and sardines, to say nothing of oysters and barreled fish, have fur- 

 nished vast amounts of exports to foreign people, and it is as certain 

 as the rising and setting of the sun that cauned goods will yet form 

 a vast amount of exports from America to Europe. If Europe, how- 

 ever, counts upon America for any exports of canned vegetables and 

 fruits this year, she will have to be prepared to compete with our 

 home consumers for what she gets. There will be no surplus of any- 

 thing this year for exports." 



It is difficult to obtain statistics of the latest pack because the 

 packers are not inclined to tell their output for fear of influencing 

 the market against them. 



THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF CANNING VEGE- 

 TABLE PRODUCTS. 



When we look for the beginning of canning fruits and vegetables, 

 we find the credit and honor of the discovery is accorded to a French- 

 man named Appert, who in 1810 published under the authority of 

 the French government the results of his experiments in preserving 

 fruits in air-tight packages after boiling. As early as 1819, Thos. 

 Kensett, who probably learned the art before leaving Eogland, is 

 known to have put up canned goods in New York in "partnership with 

 Ezra Daggett. This firm obtained a patent io 1825 for an improved 

 method in the art of preserving, from the United States government. 

 During the subsequent fifteen years other attempts at preserving 

 fruits, vegetables and fish were made in several quarters along the 

 eastern coast, but they were not all successful. Isaac Winslow, of 

 Portland, Maine, began his experiments in canning sweet corn ir: 

 1839; at first he boiled the whole ears without satisfactory results. 

 He then cut the corn from the cob before boiling, but was disap- 

 pointed to find, later, that nearly every can swelled. He persisted, 

 however, in his effort to find the error of his ways and after many 

 years of failure and partial successes he perfected his methods and 



