346 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



CO-OPERATION IN CANNING AND EVAPORATING. 



• HETHER or not the canning industry in a community can be 

 made to pay depends in large part upon the manner in which it 

 is instituted and conducted. There is certainly room here for 

 co-operation on the part of those who make a specialty of grow- 

 ing fruit and vegetables, but the wisest kind of judgment must 

 be followed, and the best business management employed. 

 Never has there been a time when the use of canned goods was 

 more general than to-day. This mode of successfully preserving surplus fruits 

 and vegetables at a time when there would otherwise be no adequate market for 

 them, carries profit to an army of agriculturists. At the same time it benefits 

 the consuming masses, providing desirable food products throughout the entire 

 year at moderate cost. 



That farmers may here successfully co-operate has been proved many times. 

 For example, in one Connecticut town last season, two score farmers in this 

 manner found a ready market for their product, which in turn was preserved in 

 such unusually fine shape that the management readily sold all at figures 

 decidedly above the market for ordinary canned goods. This factory, 

 employs 80 to 100 people several months in the year, mostly members 

 of farmers' families, and in September its weekly payroll was $600. It puts up 

 tomatoes, pickles, squash, onions, peppers, cauliflowers, apples and small fruits, 

 the product last year including 20,000 cases of tomatoes (of 24 cans, each weigh- 

 ing three pounds), 1,200 bbls. catsup, 28,000 gals, of bottled preparations, and 

 other stuff in proportion. The object is to make the best product possible, and 

 farmers are encouraged to bring only choice vegetables and fruits to the factory. 

 One man raised 1,213 bushels of first quality tomatoes on one acre, which, at 

 30c. per bushel, brought $363.90, also 12 tons of squash from half an acre, at 

 $10 per ton. 



We have consistently maintained, however, in former seasons, and again 

 repeat it, that any community may well go slow about believing literally all the 

 claims made by promoters, whose only purpose is to sell machinery and appa- 

 ratus at high prices, perhaps loading down the local association with a burden- 

 some debt sufficient to more than offset all profits for five years. There are 

 plenty of reliable concerns with requisite machinery for a model canning plant, 

 who will quote same, or erect and equip factories ready for use. Only use your 

 judgment and avoid the impositions of those whose claims are not worthy of 

 confidence. Evaporating of fruits and vegetables may also be done co-opera- 

 tively, but usually it is better not to try to combine a cannary with an evaporat- 

 ing plant. 



While considering the advisability of establishing a canning factory, do not 

 lose sight of the market conditions in a broad sense. The fact must be recog- 



