T 



XIII 



PRESERVING ASPARAGUS 



CANNING 



HE canning facflory has made asparagus a vege- 

 table for every day of the year instead of 

 being a luxury for a few weeks, as was for- 

 merly the case. The canners have made it 

 a farm crop instead of a garden produ(5t. To a great 

 extent canning has transformed the farm into a gar- 

 den, increasing the profits from every acre planted 

 many fold. In many localities an acre of what was 

 formerly considered a sandy waste is now yielding 

 more than double the net profit of the best acre under 

 cultivation in ordinary farm crops. 



Easter?t viethods. — The pioneers in this industry on 

 Long Island, N. Y., have been the Messrs. Hudson & 

 Sons, who have extensive plants at Mattituck and 

 River head, each of them as complete as mechanical 

 skill and enterprise can make them. Each plant con- 

 sists of a storehouse, 50x150 feet; a packing-house, 

 40 X 125 feet; and a can manufacflory, 25 x 60 feet. A 

 steam-engine of ten horse-power is required for hoist- 

 ing, pumping, and for generating gas for the soldering- 

 heaters, and a boiler of one hundred horse-power to 

 generate steam for sterilizing the asparagus. A per- 

 spective view of one of the plants is seen in Fig. 36. 



The asparagus, as it comes from the growers, is in 

 bunches seven and one-half inches long and weighing 



