XIII 
RESERVING ASPARAGUS 
CANNING 
HE canning factory has made asparagus a vege- 
table for every day of the year instead of 
being a luxury for a few weeks, as was for- 
merly the case. The canners have made it 
a farm crop instead of a garden product. Toa great 
extent canning has transformed the farm into a gar- 
den, increasing the profits from every acre planted 
many fold. In many localities an acre of what was 
formerly considered a sandy waste is now yielding 
more than double the net profit of the best acre under 
cultivation in ordinary farm crops. 
Eastern methods.—The pioneers in this industry on 
Long Island, N. Y., have been the Messrs. Hudson & 
Sons, who have extensive plants at Mattituck and 
Riverhead, each of them as complete as mechanical 
skill and enterprise can make them. Each plant con- 
sists of a storehouse, 50x 150 feet; a packing-house, 
40x 125 feet; and a can manufactory, 25x60 feet. A 
steam-engine of ten horse-power is required for hoist- 
ing, pumping, and for generating gas for the soldering- 
heaters, and a boiler of one hundred horse-power to 
generate steam for sterilizing the asparagus. A per- 
spective view of one of the plants is seen in Fig. 36. 
The asparagus, as it comes from the growers, is in 
bunches seven and one-half inches long and weighing 
