GROWING GARDEN CROPS FOR THE CANNING FACTORIES. 329 



GROWING GARDEN CROPS FOR THE CANNING 

 FACTORIES. 



JOHN S, HUGHES, MINNEAPOLIS, SEC'y MINN. CANNERS' ASS'n. 



In assigning me this subject I do not suppose for one moment 

 that your secretary looked upon me as competent to teach the men 

 and women I see before me anything new in growing garden vege- 

 tables, but rather that I might indicate in a cursory manner the vari- 

 eties usually grown for canning purposes and in what respect their 

 cultivation for such purposes dififers from the accepted methods 

 of growing these crops for home use. This must be then my excuse 

 for standing here this morning. 



In these days every vegetable known to our gardens excepting 

 egg plant, and a few others of the like nature, is packed in cans. 

 Peas, beans of every kind, corn and tomatoes are familiar to us all, 

 but many have never seen canned spinach, rhubarb, sauer kraut, 

 cabbage, beets, pumpkins and squash nor know that all of these 

 things are today packed in large quantity, besides many others not 

 in common use. But the factories which pack more than one or two 

 articles in this list are rare. Tomatoes lead, corn comes next, and 

 peas follow some distance behind. These are the three great staples. 

 Each requires different methods of handling, a different process and 

 in the main different kinds of machinery for their preparation for 

 the can. The filler which will put corn — a creamy pulp — into the 

 can will not do the same for peas, which require to be shaken in. 

 The same is true of tomatoes, string beans, etc. String beans and 

 peas, corn and tomatoes have the same seasons of maturity and thus 

 get in each other's way. For these reasons they require separate 

 lines of machinery and two gangs of workers, and, hence, might 

 just as well be packed in separate factories. 



Here in Minnesota we pack, as you know, principally corn. 

 Why? The answer is easy, almost obvious. We can grow corn to 

 a better advantage than any other vegetable. I might say truthfully 

 we can grow sweet corn to perfection. Away up here, close to the 

 early frost line, corn gathers both quality and sweetness. Why, I 

 do not know. Whether the cause be soil or climate, none seem to 

 be able to say, but it looks as if the climate had much to do with it. 

 As many of you know, Maine has long been pre-eminent for highest 

 quality in canned corn, and its claims to such pre-eminence are 

 just. But we are fast treading on her heels. No other corn-packing 

 state approaches Maine in quality so nearly as Minnesota. Others 

 get more money for their product than do the packers of Minnesota, 

 but the rea'^ons are other than those of qualitA'. Strange as it mav 



