FRUIT PRESERVATION CANNING OPERATIONS. 347 



germs are excluded. Ordinary jam will only keep good a year or two, yet if proper care 

 is taken in boiling and excluding air and the germs of fermentation, a good article will 

 retain its high qualities for years. The principles involved in canning are the same as 

 in jam-making the rule of uniformity and cheapness of product. Old kitchen processes, 

 good as they are for preserving fruit for home use, are too costly and slow for supplying 

 the wants of the world. Canning might be adopted in this country, co-operative 

 factories being established to which fruit could be consigned. Surplus fruit could be 

 utilised, panic prices avoided, and the producers share with consumers in the advan- 

 tages. 



" The chief features of canning operations are : 1, preparation of the cans (which is done in the winter) ; 

 2, preparation of the fruit ; 3, packing in the cans ; 4, introduction of the syrup ; 5, capping the cans ; 6 

 cooking the fruit ; 7, labelling and casing. The outfit of a cannery is of the same general kind, but there 

 is much difference in size and cost. An American cannery, built of rough timber, except the floors, which 

 should be of the best material and laid to drain well, consisting of two storeys, costs 7,026 dollars, including tools and 

 machinery, and has a capacity for putting up half a million of cans during the season. There are, however, several 

 patented devices to meet the wants of the small canner, but the consensus of growers is in favour of relegating the 

 manufacturing to a co-operative establishment, as the attention and investment in labour, cans, and sugar are consider- 

 able. Sugar is more than 100 per cent, cheaper in this country than in America generally, and fruit ought to be 

 canned so as to be able to undersell the American manufacturer. 



"The progressive steps in the process of canning comprise : 1, Receiving, weighing, and crediting the fruit; 

 2, passing the fruit to the peeling and cutting room, where it is handled by the operatives by piecework ; 3, thence 

 the prepared fruit goes to the filling tables, where it is put in cans grouped in frames holding a dozen ; 4, these are 

 carried to the syrup tables, where other operatives fill the cans with syrup from pipes connecting with tanks to which 

 syrups of different densities, according to the fruit which is being worked, or the grade of goods, is stored in bulk ; 

 5, the cans go next to the capping tables, where the cover is put on and soldered, sometimes by hand, sometimes by 

 soldering machines, the heat being secured with gasoline, a minute vent-hole, previously made, is left in the cover of 

 each can ; 6, the cans are then placed in large iron frames, holding a gross, and these are raised and swung about by 

 cranes and plunged in the cooking-baths, in which the water is kept boiling by means of steam from the boiler, which 

 is situated outside the building ; 7, the amount of cooking varies with different fruits, and with the same fruit in 

 different conditions. The cooking must be directed by an experienced man, and on his judgment depends largely the 

 success of the whole work of the cannery ; 8, the vent-hole is closed at once, and the final touch of the cooking 

 process given ; the cans, after thorough cooling, are ready for labelling and casing. Such is an outline of American 

 commercial canning, there being no partitions in the cannery proper, and the manager from his glazed office has the 

 whole concern under his eye, from the entrance of the fruit to its exit from the cooking-baths. A large cannery has 

 a capacity for turning out 100,000 cases in a season, and employs about 500 operatives. The United States export 

 canned fruit of the value of 834,668 dollars." 



Home-canning is practised to a large extent in the United States and Australia, 

 mainly for two reasons : 1, to have on hand a good supply of canned fruit for family use; 

 2, to steady prices of raw fruit in the local or general markets, which the fruit-grower will 

 supply if he gets a paying price. 



The following procedure for home-canning is taken from " Canning Fruit," by Mr. Shelton, Queensland : " The 

 process of canning is a simple one, being merely to drive out the germs of fermentation by heating the fruit and 



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