THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK III 



compliance to the command, " Gather up the fragments that remain, 

 that nothing be lost." Without this method of preserving crops the com- 

 mercial ciilture of fruits and vegetables as carried on nowadays would be 

 ruined and no fruit would suffer as would the peach, since it leads all others 

 in quantity and value of the canned pack. The value of canned peaches 

 in the United States in 1909 was $3,753,698 or nearly one-seventh the 

 total value of the crop and one may roughly estimate the fruit canned at 

 home to be half as much as that canned in the factories. The product was 

 put up in states, named in order of value of the pack as follows: California, 

 $3,013,203; Michigan, $175,386; Maryland, $158,839; Georgia, $156,282; 

 New York, $141,142. These canned peaches go to every part of the world 

 to which they can be cheaply carried and are fit for consumption any 

 time within two or three years after being put up. The canning factory 

 has revolutionized the peach-industry in the United States by giving its 

 products access to the world-market. 



Commercial canning is a specialist's business into which we cannot 

 go. The processes, essentially, are the same as those used in domestic 

 canning and consist in destroying all bacteria by heat and then hermetically 

 sealing the product in cans. In canning factories the work is nearly all 

 done by machinery, including peeling, pitting and cutting the fruit, solder- 

 ing the cans and putting on labels. To purchase proper machinery, hire 

 labor and manage both to sectire uniformity and cheapness in the product 

 requires large capital and keen business ability. Peaches are easy to 

 handle in factories and the work can be done so cheaply and the product 

 is so acceptable that the factory-canned fruit is rapidly taking the place 

 of that which a quarter of a century ago was almost wholly put up in the 

 kitchen. The canning industry originated, has been perfected and is now 

 chiefly carried on in the United States and Canada, though rapidly being 

 introduced elsewhere. The aid afforded the peach-grower in this country 

 by the canneries has been a great stimulus and makes the possibilities of 

 profitable production of this fruit in the future certain. 



Orchard-canning on a small scale seldom proves feasible, succeeding 

 best, if at all, in a home industry to provide a special product for a fancy 

 or private trade. Occasionally, associations can command capital enough 

 to compete with the large business enterprises but as a rule the peach- 

 grower's interests are served best by the production of acceptable fruit 

 for those who are engaged in the canning industry. 



In the East, New York for example, all surplus peaches of standard 



