Page 12 



BETTER FRUIT 



November, 1919 



Growth and Value of the Canning Industry 



By J. 0. Holt, Manager of the Eugene Fruit Growers' Association 



ABOl'T the year 1795 the French gov- 

 ernment odered a prize of 12,000 

 francs for the best method of preserv- 

 ing fruits and vegetables aside from 

 pickling or dyeing. This prize was 

 awarded to Nicholas Appert in 1810, 

 thus canning was not an accidental dis- 

 covery but the result of the hard and in- 

 telligently directed labor of a French 

 scientist. 



Although a French invention, its de- 

 velopment has been largely due to 

 American enterprise. At the present 

 time it is only in the United States that 

 canned goods are packed in water or 

 syrup. Other countries pack largely 

 jams, preserves and fruit and vegetable 

 pastes. For instance, in Italy tomatoes 

 are canned by being pealed, pulped, 

 part of the moisture removed and then 

 canned as a thick paste. 



On the continent peaches and apri- 

 cots are canned the same way. Thous- 

 ands of cases of this paste are being ex- 

 ported from this country. 



I will not take the space to follow the 

 development of the canning industry 

 from the time of its beginning in 

 France, interesting as it is. Its growth 

 was slow until the Civil war. Since that 

 time it has grown with increasing mo- 

 mentum until it is not only one of the 

 big industries but one of the vital in- 

 dustries of our country. 



It is the canner who takes the surplus 

 perishable products which would 

 otherwise be lost, and preserves them 

 for consumption through the balance of 

 the year. If it was not for the canner 

 perishable fruit would be in our supply 

 at picking time, the price would become 

 so low the producer would lose money 

 and production would be cut to a half 

 or a third of the needs of the public. 



The industry has developed in rather 

 well defined belts. The best corn is 

 packed in Maine, Northern New York, 

 Fisconsin and Michigan. 



Tomatoes take a more southern belt 

 country — in Maryland, Virginia, South- 

 ern Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Utah, 

 while peas are packed in a belt between 

 and overlapping the other two. By far 

 the larger part of the fruits are packed 

 on the Pacific Coast. 



The total pack of salmon in 1918 was 

 eight million cases, peas ten million 

 cases, corn eleven million cases, toma- 

 toes fifteen million cases, and a total 

 pack of all sorts of vegetables of 48 

 million cases, while the total pack of all 

 kinds of fruits for the same year was 

 11 million cases. There were packed in 

 Oregon last year about 750,000 cases of 

 fruits and vegetables, including jams, 

 jellies, etc. Of this amount only about 

 25 per cent was vegetables. 



I expect to see our most rapid de- 

 velopment in the future to be in the 

 canning of vegetables. Not necessarily 

 tomatoes and peas, but string beans, 

 beets, brocoli, carrots, parsnips, tur- 

 nips, etc. Our climate is especially 

 adapted to produce these with a flavor 

 and texture which cannot be excelled 

 elsewhere. We are now selling these 

 vegetables in car lots to restaurants and 



hotels. These people find it cheaper to 

 buy the canned article than to buy in 

 the local market, and pay the cost of 

 pealing and cooking them. The canner 

 takes the vegetable fresh and crisp 

 from the fields, prepares them by ma- 

 chinery and cans them before they have 

 time to wilt. Fruit is sometimes im- 

 proved by standing awhile after picking 

 but a vegetable immediately begins to 

 deteriorate. 



.lust as the Civil war made canning a 

 commercial industry the present great 

 war has proven it to be a national 

 necessity. Nn industry is going for- 

 ward faster than this. Machinery which 

 is the best obtainable in one year goes 

 to the junk pile the next season to make 

 room for improvements. 



Canning factories today are being 

 made more sanitary than most of the 

 kitchens in our homes. People are 

 learning that canned foods are the pur- 

 est, cleanest and most sanitary foods 

 obtainable. 



One of the hardest lies about canned 

 goods to down is the old bugaboo 

 "Ptomaine Poisoning." Even now in 

 this enlightened age occasionally some 

 ignorant editor will publish a story of 

 ptomaine poisoning from eating canned 

 goods. Officials of the National Can- 

 ners' Association have for years been 

 running down these stories and trying 

 to find an authentic cast of ptomaine 

 poisoning traceable to canned goods, 

 but without success. Two years ago a 

 committee headed by Dr. Roseneau of 

 Harvard University was appointed to 

 try to settle this matter. After studying 



51 cases involving 1,500 persons, they 

 liave been unable to verify one case of 

 ptomaine poisoning traceable to canned 

 goods. Their verdict is summed up as 

 follows: 



"It is becoming convincingly clear to 

 us that there is no such thang as 'pto- 

 maine' poisoning, and that canned goods 

 have a clean bill of health. They are, 

 in fact, the safest foods that come to 

 our tables." Ptomaine poisoning has 

 often been used as a cloak for profes- 

 sional ignorance. 



The canning industry is prosperous 

 and expanding rapidly in a great many 

 directions, but the future is not alto- 

 gether clear of difficulties. Complica- 

 tion in many locations is becoming so 

 keen that it is impossible to run the 

 plant in the most economical way and 

 get the most out of the product for the 

 man who grows it, and in order to do so 

 the plant must run at capacity for the 

 greater part of the season. But when 

 the canner must not only take into con- 

 sideration the hazzard of the elements 

 but compete with other canneries and 

 the fresh market for his supplies he 

 cannot pay as much or sell as cheap as 

 he should. I predict that it will not be 

 many years before the canners will 

 have to grow their own supplies or the 

 growers will have to own their own 

 canneries. The canneryman is a crim- 

 inal if he adds one cent more than ab- 

 solutely necessary to the products as 

 they pass through his hands from the 

 producer to the consumer. The big 

 meat packers are reaching out their 

 tentacles to take in the canning indus- 

 try and are making some headway. I 

 see no better way to solve these prob- 

 lems than by supporting the Growers' 

 Cooperative Association. 



Adding to the Life of Orchard Implements 



By G. W, 



"T OCKING the barn door after the 

 _Li horse is stolen" is an adage so 

 old and so commonly used that it has 

 lost considerable of its truth and mean- 

 ing with the passing years. Neverthe- 

 less it is undoubtedly true that in the 

 care of farm implements this same 

 practice of not locking the door is very 

 commonly and generally used. 



Farm and orchard implements repre- 

 sent a considerable investment and be- 

 cause of high replacement values are 

 worth more today, generally speaking, 

 than they were at the time of purchase. 

 Farm implements should be given the 

 greatest care and protection from the 

 weather. They are subjected to all sorts 

 of hard wear under different condi- 

 tions, they are used in the hot sunshine, 

 in the rains, they are allowed to stand 

 in the open exposed to the action of 

 wind and weather, making them victims 

 of decay and rust, and leaving them 

 with years of usefulness gone, worn out 

 before their time and a big cash loss to 

 their owner. 



It costs very little to insure your 

 house compared with the cost of re- 

 placing the building. It costs only a 

 trifle to protect farm implements against 



. Jaap 



the ravages of weather compared with 

 the cost of replacing them. A few dol- 

 lars worth of paint will add years of 

 life and service to these implements and 

 more than repay the owner for the in- 

 vestment and time he spends in protect- 

 ing his implements by painting. 



It is unnecessary to go into detail con- 

 cerning the action of water on wood or 

 metal. Every farmer knows that water 

 will rot wood and rust metal. He knows 

 that when decay sets in it does not take 

 very long before the wood parts of his 

 machinery are thoroughly rotted away, 

 and that when rust attacks the metal 

 parts it is practically impossible to stop 

 its action — it eats deeper and deeper 

 into the metal until the part is so 

 weakened as to be useless. 



Paint is the best protection you can 

 give to farm implements. All decay 

 begins at the surface and generally eats 

 its way deeper. It follows then, that by 

 protecting the surface with a coat of 

 good paint it is impossible for decay to 

 attack the surface, and since it cannot 

 reach the surface because of the pro- 

 tecting film of paint, it is impossible for 

 parts to rot or rust. 



It is not good policy to satisfy your- 



