254 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL RERORT. 



THE CANNING INDUSTRY. 

 (By Hon. N. F. Murray, Oregon, Mo.) 



The art of canning provisions to preserve them is of comparatively 

 recent date. As early as 1810 Augustus de Heine took out a patent in 

 England for preserving food in tin or other metal cases by simplv ex- 

 hausting the air by means of an air pump, but it was unsuccessful. It 

 was followed by a number of others by various persons, all of which were 

 more or less failures, until Werthermer's patents, ."three in number," 

 which dated from 1839 to 1841. On this foundation the canning industry 

 has been built up, and from time to time new improvements have been 

 added, till at present it is one of the great industries of the country. 



For a time canning was mainly confined to the eastern states, but 

 of late years it has spread to a considerable extent throughout the western 

 states, having made a phenomenal growth in California. 



The assets of the California Fruit Canners' Association are $5,525,483. 

 The association last year worked up 56,851 tons of fruit and vegetables 

 and 5,908,147 pounds of sugar were used in the process. A large amount 

 of the fruit and vegetables canned are grown upon land worth from $200 

 up to $1,000 per acre and shipped thousands of miles to market, and they 

 may be found in every grocer}- of our country. Last fall orders were 

 placed with the California canners for three hundred car loads of canned 

 tomatges to supply Missouri and adjoining states. We have no com- 

 plaints to make against the people of California for the strenuous efforts 

 they are' putting forth to supply the world with their products, but we 

 have a right to ask our own people of Missouri, why do we not grow and 

 can our own products to supply our own people and retain our money at 

 home, in place of continually paying it out to build up great commercial 

 centers in distant states? 



We have the land. At least fifteen millions of acres of Missouri 

 is the finest and best fruit and vegetable land in the world. Our fruits 

 have always taken first awards at all the great world's expositions. This 

 land can be bought for $5 up to $100 per acre, and it needs no irrigation. 

 It is near railroads and in a State that has a fine home market among her 

 three millions of people, one-half of whom live in towns and cities. With 

 all these great natural and superior advantages, why has Missouri not 

 engaged more extensively in the canning industry? Simply because of 

 the fact that Missouri is a State so highly favored with such a variety 

 of crops and such a wonderfully diversified industry that her people 

 "do not have to go to market with their eggs all in one basket," as they 



