THE CANNING OF PEAS. 



HISTORICAL NOTE. 



rdiiiir t<> tin' early accounts of the art of canning, peas were 

 aiuonir the lir-t vegetable- in I,,' pre-erved in this manner, and later 

 the\ IIIIOIIL' tin- Iir-t tn enter the can nod -goods trade. Pea 



canning may l.r -aid. theref,.re. in !. as old as the canning industry. 

 At lir-t i In- |>mre-- wa- u-ed only to preserve such choice fruits and 

 were m-t diflicult to keep in the fresh state, as the cost 

 I' glass bntile^ and earl henu a re jar- prevented their use for cheaper 

 pn>diiei~. At'icr the inxention of the tin can, as the cost was less- 



I, pea- bream ie of the im>-t iin|)ortaiit articles packed. The 



'aiming indu-try began in thi> country in Baltimore during the 

 Fifth-. Th( an immediate demand for the product, and conse- 



quently -nine parking wa- done at nearly every factory. The peas 

 were in n\\n garden f;i>hion and picked and podded by hand; but the 

 laU.r ir(|uii-ed \\a- so ui ai that the output was small and the price 

 high. The method- u-rd did not differ in any essential detail from 

 tho-' followed in preparing fre-h pea- in the kitchen. The demand 

 continued to inerra-e. Imt the total output of all the early factories 

 would not equal that of one >mall modern plant. 



The tii--t lalor--a\ ing device of importance in pea canning was the 

 pnddinir machine invented l>y Madame Faure in France in 1883. 

 Tin- machine was de-cribed in La Nature. Paris, April, 1885, and 

 a tran-lat ion. with illu-t rat ion-, appeared in the Scientific Ameri- 

 can June ;. L885. The invention was practically duplicated in 

 thi> country in 1880. By means of the podding machine one person 

 could do the work of a hundred or more in removing the peas from 

 I he pods. thu> making possible the canning of much greater quanti- 

 tie-. The American podding machine was improved, and in 189:5 

 it wa- patented as a vining machine. After this invention it was 

 no longer ne< -e ary to pick the pods from the vines in the field; the 

 plant- could be mowed, hauled in by wagon, and the peas separated 

 from the pod and vine at one operation. The whole pea-canning 

 industry wa> ehaiiged by this invention. Practically all of the peas 

 canned in thi- country are passed through these vining machines, so 

 that their use has virtually changed the growing of peas in small 

 patches market -garden fashion, with hundreds of persons going 



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