No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 269 



Several of the largest canning establisliments are capitalized with 

 over a million dollars, and operate many factories running night 

 and day during the busy season, each factory at its best turoing out 

 50,000 cans per day. Such large concerns are developed only after 

 years of experience in the management of smaller establishments. 

 This brief bulletin is prepared to meet the queries of persons seek- 

 ing their first information about the canning business, and not as a 

 guide to the experts. 



The small canning factories putting up a limited quantity of but 

 one line of goods are better able than a large factory to give the 

 closest attention to details and thus can insure an excellent quality 

 in what they pack. Many of these factories contract to put up 

 goods for large factories and thus dispose at once of the entire 

 pack. A fair price may be secured in this way, but large profits 

 due to real or fictitious ''short supply" reports are sacrificed to the 

 larger speculator in the goods. 



The jobbers in canned goods are often responsible for extreme 

 fluctuations in the market, and the small packer having no oppor- 

 tunity to know the exact condition of the supply is induced to sell 

 on a very small margin of profit. The packer should keep himself 

 informed concerning the true state of affairs with information from 

 the most reliable sources, that he may protect his interests against 

 tlie misrepresentations of speculators. Much canned goods is sold 

 ' at first hand below cost, simply because the packer could not afford 

 to hold his goods until an apparent glut was removed. 



As an illustration of a remarkable development of a great estab- 

 lishment from a small beginning, we need only turn to the famous 

 pickling and preserving house in our own State, that of H. J. Heinz 

 Company, at Pittsburg, Pa. They write that "In 1869 the present 

 business of H. J. Heiuz Company was founded in Sharpsburg, a 

 little suburb of Pittsburg, Pa., on three-quarters of an acre sown 

 with horse-radish. The founder of the company was its entire force 

 of cultivators, and two young girls were its manufacturing staff — 

 grating the horse-radish for market. A common wheelbarrow was 

 the only vehicle used by the company for marketing its products, 

 and the entire manufacturing was done in a small two-story brick 

 building. At the present day the expanded company is planting 

 18,000 acres with its own seeds and gathering the fruits of many 

 thousand acres more. Its main plant at Pittsburg, Pa., occupies 

 17 large buildings, and it has 38 salting stations, 9 branch factories 

 and 26 branch warehouses and offices, and employs steadily over 

 2,500 workers. Its original wheelbarrow has expanded into huge 

 drays and speedy automobiles and a host of Heinz refrigerator and 

 tank cars running throughout the United States." Inspection of this 

 magnificent plant is Invited and every courtesy is extended. 



