The Four Storey Extension That Mr. E. D. Smith is Making to His Jam Factory at Winona. Ontario 



Built of reinforced concrete. First factory was finished only three years ago ani now the plant is being more than doubled. The 

 kitchen will be finished in white enamel and all the help will wear white to ensure perfect sanitation. The "E. D. S." brand of jama 

 and jellies have won great popularity in short time, and they deserve it. 



Fruits for the Jatn Factory and Cannery 



THE quantity of fruits used by the 

 jam factories in the Niagara penin- 

 sula has become a very large factor 

 in the fruit industry of that district. Four 

 years ago the quantity was extremely 

 small because practically all the jam 

 manufactured in Canada was at that 

 time made of something other than 

 the fruit mentioned on the label. Almost 

 the entire product of the jam factories of 

 Ontario was what is called "compound" 

 jam. The great art in making "com- 

 pound" jam was to use as little fruit as 

 possible. Some of the manufacturers got 

 it down so fine as to use none at all. The 

 first day that I started my factory, a gen- 

 tleman called repre.senting a jam factory 

 in the province of Quebec. He said, "I 

 understand you are going to make jam 

 out of pure fruit." I said, "Yes, that is 

 my intention." He said, "I don't see 

 how you can make it pay. How in the 

 world can you compete with us? We 

 make pure fruit jam and we don't use a 

 pound of fruit." To-day there are two 

 factories in the Niagara district making 

 their jam entirely out of fruit as described 

 on the label. In my own factory — a cut 

 of the addition to which, made this year, 

 is shown in this issue of The Canadian 

 Horticulturist — I am using nearly a 

 quarter of a million boxes of strawberries, 

 one-quarter of a million boxes of rasp- 

 berries and other fruits such as currants, 

 gooseberries, peaches, plums and so 

 forth, in like proportions, although the 

 two chief fruits that are needed for jam 

 are strawberries and raspberries. 



SANDY BERRIES NOT WANTED 



Strawberries brought a comparative- 

 ly low price this year, although I believe 

 a ^air margin of profit can be made grow- 



E. D. Smith, Winona, Ontario 



ing strawberries even at the prices of this 

 year if gone about in a business-like way, 

 such as is pursued, for instance, by Mr. 

 James E. Johnson of Simcoe, Ont., who 

 never thinks of growing a crop without 

 mulching the vines in the winter. By this 

 means, he is assured of a crop. He 

 draws the mulch from off the vines in 

 the spring, leaving it between the rows 

 where it is tramped down and forms a 

 mulch which holds the moisture and 

 makes it clean for the pickers and pro- 

 vides clean berries and not berries all 

 spattered with sand as is the case in a 

 patch that is not mulched. These sandy 

 berries have to be washed at the factory. 

 This spoils them to a great extent. I 

 would not give for sandy berries more 

 than half the price that I would for clean 

 ones. 



CAUSE OP LOW PRICES THIS YEAR 



The low price for strawberries this 

 year is due to two causes : first of all, 

 of course, on account of a large crop, but 

 I think the price would have been at 

 least one cent a box more had the can- 

 neries of the country been absorbing the 

 usual quantity of strawberries, whereas, 

 as a matter of fact, the canneries ab- 

 sorbed very few. The canneries, the 

 wholesale merchants and the retail merch- 

 ants over all the country are pretty well 

 loaded up with strawberries. Canned 

 strawberries have not been in demand by 

 the public as they were a few years ago. 

 This has arisen largely from the high 

 prices that prevailed two years ago. 



Looking at it from the growers' point 

 of view it may seem strange that high 

 prices are injurious. Nevertheless, I firm- 

 ly believe that no greater calamity can 

 happen to the growers of any kind of 



166 



fruit than to have extravagantly high 

 prices in a year. The high prices of two 

 years ago for all kinds of fruit, caused 

 the canners necessarily to advance their 

 prices. This not only cut off the con- 

 sumption, but it caused thousands of con- 

 sumers over the country to turn their at- 

 tention to some other line of fruit that 

 would be cheaper and, as foreign fruits, 

 such as prunes, bananas, figs, dates and 

 others, are becoming cheaper each year, 

 consumers, finding this out, bought free- 

 ly of these foreign fruits and they have 

 stuck to them ever since and will continue 

 to stick to them so long as they can get 

 them at a reasonable price compared to 

 our own home-grown fruits ; whereas, 

 had they not been forced to look to other 

 sources of supply by the extravagantly 

 high prices of Canadian canned fruits in 

 1906, they would still be buying our 

 canned strawberries and other fruits as 

 they formerly did. 



NOT ENOUGH EASPBBRRIE8 



In regard to raspberrie.s, there are not 

 enough of them, in my judgment, grown 

 in this country yet. For two years past 

 neither the canneries nor the jam factor- 

 ies could get enough raspberries ; and yet 

 raspberries are the easiest things to grow 

 in the whole fruit line. They grow over 

 a wide range of territory, the plants cost 

 but little and they come into bearing 

 quickly. They are easy to cultivate and 

 they will grow on a fairly wide range of 

 soil. Moreover, in the factories they are 

 easily handled. We can handle raspber- 

 ries in the factory with one-quarter of the 

 help that we can strawberries. 



That the growers are getting remuner- 

 ative prices may be judged by the fact 

 that I can to-day buy raspberries in Eng- 



