148 VEGETABLE GROWING-. 



rious causes operating against the erection and run- 

 ning of a canning factory. The greatest difficulty is 

 the uncertainty of having material to work up when 

 the season comes. During good vegetable seasons the 

 crop is exhausted by the end of the shipping season, 

 consequently no factory could afford to buy the vege- 

 tables in competition with the northern markets. It 

 is also true that the factory would be operated for a 

 small portion of the year, possibly for three or four 

 months. As soon as we perfect vegetable or fruit 

 growing to such a degree as to have ripe material 

 coming in for canning, during eight or ten months of 

 the year, there will be plenty of capital to invest in 

 factories. 



Under present conditions it might be quite pos- 

 sible that the different communities could establish 

 factories on a co operative basis. This is done in a 

 dairying section, and also in some fruit growing sec- 

 tions of the United States. Such a corporation does 

 business just as if it were a private enterprise. The 

 advantage in this plan is that many are working for a 

 common cause. The expense of erecting a canning 

 factory is by no means the most important considera- 

 tion. An establishment that would cost from $500 to 

 $1,000 would be able to do the work that would be re- 

 quired of it for a very large tomato-growing district. 



The operation of canning is exceedingly simple, yet 

 it requires an expert to do the work well, and to know 

 that when it is done the material will not degen- 

 erate in the cans. The principle involved is simply 

 this : The material to be canned is placed under a tem- 

 perature sufficient to kill all living organisms contain- 

 ed therein, and in this condition it is sealed. Under 

 these circumstances there can be no degenerating ma- 

 terial that has been canned, no fermenting, no rotting, 



