FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 129 



A. Well, we usually can start in with peas, asparagus and tomatoes. Then we have 

 our fruit and late vegetables; still this doesn't take us nearly through the season. 



Q. Are the farmers suited? 



Mr. Hilton : Yes, sir. ISIany of the stockholders are farmers. Some of them could 

 not pay for the stock on the start, but have paid for it in produce. We have a small 

 capitalization and employ 150 men. 



Q. What is the acreage of fruit needed for a $10,000 factory? 



Mr. Hilton: The amount of the crop varies so that I could hardly state with any 

 accuracy. 



Q. What acreage of peas and tomatoes do you utilize? 



Mr. Hilton: Two to three hundred acres of peas and two hundred acres of tomatoes. 



Q. What do you pay? 



Mr. Hilton: We pay $6.00 a ton for tomatoes. This year will pay $7.00 a ton. We 

 pay two cents a pound for peas and furnish the seed peas. 



Q. What are the best kinds ? 



Mr. Hilton: The Alaska pea and New Stone tomato. 



Geo. W. Gehlbach: As to whether the farmers are suited, it is reported at Fremont 

 that peas netted some farmers $18 per acre and that one farmer got $90 from an acre 

 of cucumbers. 



RAISING FRUIT AND VEGETABLES FOR THE CANNING 



FACTORY. 



GEO. E. ROWE^ GRAND RAPIDS. 



We are dealing with a matter of fact business proposition, a matter of 

 sweat and hread, a matter of work and gold: and, as in all other propo- 

 sitions there are many factors to be considered. The consumer, can- 

 ner, grower, soil, labor, cultivation, road, luagon, distance, quantity 

 and varieties. The interest of the consumer, cauner and grower 

 are one. No man can live unto himself and prosper. The consumer pars 

 his hard earned money for a can of fruit. He ought to get what he pays 

 for in quality, kind and quantity; and it is of special concern to the canner 

 and grower to see that he does. For it is here that we are in close touch 

 with '"the goose that lays the golden egg." A ^oo(7, honest quart of fruit 

 calls for ten more while one poor can destroys the sale of twenty'. The 

 successful up to date canner has learned that to build up a reputation 

 and have an increasing demand for his goods he must put good fruit in 

 the cans and so in turn, the up to date grower has learnecl that the canning- 

 factory is not a dumping ground for his old stuff that he cannot sell else- 

 where; but that the factory wants and demands the best that he has. 



It is the good things that increase the demand in all departments of 

 economic life and development, the medium and common fall in line to 

 supply a demand that has been previously created when the best is gone; 

 or when perchance the purse is lean. The personal, therefore, in this 

 proposition to be dealt with is, the delicate, refined palate of the con- 

 sumer. He demands a good thing from the man who takes his money. 

 The canner builds his factory, makes his cans, arranges his processing 

 apparatus, hires his help and calls for fruit. He must fill his cans and 

 keep his help employed and so he is obliged to quite an extent to take what- 

 ever the grower brings him, some half green, some over ripe, some tasteless 

 and some, perchance, with good flavor. He 1ms no patent process whereby 

 he can ripen the green fruit in the cans or remove the bitter from the rot, 

 17 



