24 WORCESTER COUKTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1889. 



during a discussion upon the Canning Industry, published the fol- 

 lowing statement showing the business of his firm : 



Expended for A. D. 1886. 1887. 1888. 



Fruit $142,000 $203,000 $236,000 



Tin-Plate 38,000 43,000 70,500 



Sugar 10,400 13,000 14,500 



Labor 36,000 54,500 68,000 



$226,400 $313,500 $389,000 



This mind you describes the work and out-put of but a single 

 firm ! Leaving out of consideration the oyster business as alien 

 to our pursuits though of kin to our appetites, at what sum shall 

 we duly estimate the value of material essential to the proper 

 working of the innumerable canning-factories throughout the 

 Union ? Shall Corn and Tomatoes be doomed to rot while some 

 pampered monopolist and plutocrat in Pennsylvania contrives to 

 fasten still new rivets in the fetters tliat contract and cramp our 

 Terrseculture ! Shall our hill-sides be laid waste and our farms 

 abandoned to sterility ; until nature supervenes with her benefi- 

 cent processes restoring and vivifying; for no better reason than 

 that if Massachusetts sets up for herself in open market, selling 

 where she can dearest and buying where she ought cheapest, 

 paying unto Csesar meanwhile all which he has the conscience to 

 exact; she may arouse hostility among the fair-weather friends 

 who were always notorious for a charity that vaunteth itself 

 in public places, but is only lavish in the seclusion of its own 

 home ! 



Take the article of Sugar, — an item in the tables of Mr. Cur- 

 tice and a very palpable factor in the grocery accounts of Yankee 

 housewives. Under the stimulus of excessive duties the exotic 

 cane has been forced to an unnatural growth in an extreme sec- 

 tion of our Republic. Shielded by that almost prohibitory Tariff, 

 the Trust steps in and dictates the price at which it will suffer 

 Coftee and Tea to be sweetened. Cranberry Sauce to be made as 

 it ought to be, Fruit to be canned or preserved. The frugal 

 housewife, who has seen the cost of refined sugar almost doubled 

 within the last two years, may pride herself on the merits of a 



