128 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE CANNING FACTORY. 



BY HON, GEO. E. HILTON. 



This is a new business comparatively in Michigan. It might be called 

 an infant industry, if you will allow a common phrase. It seems to till 

 a long felt want. It is the ideal business for giving a home market to the 

 farmers. Fruits and vegetables in scores of localities in this fc^tate have 

 in days gone by gone begging for a home market. You know the story 

 well how the word came back from the commission house that the con- 

 signment did not bring enough to pay freight. But the canning factory 

 pays cash, takes all the fruit, saves crates, saves trouble, saves annoyance, 

 and is a good thing all around. 



Our factory in Fremont makes a specialty of fruits ; the only vegetables 

 we handle are peas, tomatoes and pumpkins. The demand for all these 

 canned goods is increasing at a remarkable rate. There is no question 

 whatever but what the business will develop tremendously. We have 

 no fears about not getting a market. Any community with a reasonable 

 amount of fruit should have a canning factory. With our annual 

 resources in fruit lines there is no reason why Michigan should not be a 

 leader in the canning industry. This tends to make smaller farms and 

 more of them and more prosperous farmers. 



The question is sometimes asked how get a canning factory? In the 

 first place it is imi)ortant that the farmers and villagers shall have a 

 mutual interest. They must feel that the factory cannot be a success 

 unless both take hold of it, and this is no small advantage, as it brings 

 better feeling between the town people and the country people. 



With us we need more of the smaller fruits; for instance the cherry 

 makes very nice fruit for canning. 



Let me close by again calling your attention to the purposes for this 

 business. AVe have at our doors the markets of the world. We can ship 

 canned goods to any climate, for they will keep for years. We could sell 

 ten times what we have. We doubled the capacity of our factory last 

 year. In less than ten j^ears the farming country around Fremont, 

 which not so very many years ago was almost a wilderness, will be one 

 vast garden. 



DISCUSSION. 



* 

 Q. What is the cost of a cannery? 



Mr. Hilton: Ours cost about $10,000 for ground, building and machinery. We can 

 ^a car load a day. 



Q. Is yours a co-operative cannery? 



Mr. Hilton: No, it is not. 



Q. Is not Michigan fruit bettJer than California fruit, either raw or canned? 



Mr. Hilton: Yes, I think it is. 



Q. What is the usual proportion of fruit to vegetables canned in factories? 



Mr. Hilton: The largest factories usually make specialties of some line. 



Q. How do they keep up the woi#c through the season? i 



