68 



CANNING THE SURPLUS 



that once was thrown away; the great fertilizer industry, a 

 market for the surplus of the packing houses; beet pulp, the 

 waste of sugar refineries; and dozens of other examples we 

 all know. All these articles are being saved and utilized and 

 sold to make their producers great fortunes simply because 

 these men know their business and are utilizing the surplus 

 wastes. One of these days the market gardeners will awake 

 to a realization of the fact that there is too much waste on 

 the farm that is not being utilized, and then all over the land, 

 wherever a gardener is located, you will see either a co- 

 operative cannery or a small home canner in operation. 



The Market Groivers' Journal in a recent issue stated that 

 the vegetable industry last year amounted to sixty millions 

 of dollars. It seems to me that is a very low estimate, but 

 we will take these figures as a basis. Suppose there were 

 but sixtj^ millions of dollars worth sold, it is safe to say that 

 there were at least five per cent, more left at home on the 

 vines to rot because there was no market for the surplus and 

 it could not be disposed of at a profit. This little item of 

 five per cent., if it had been utilized, would have meant three 

 million dollars more in the pockets of the hard-working mar- 

 ket gardeners of our land. We did not know our business, 

 or we would have had that three millions in our pockets. 



I tell you it is a sin and a disgrace the way most of us mar- 

 ket gardeners sell our products after we have spent so much 

 in time, rent, interest, fertilizers, and back-breaking labor to 

 produce the goods. We are just like the two men v/ho were 

 neighbors and who hated each other cordially. One morn- 

 ing one came into the house and remarked to his wife, ''I 

 fixed old Jones all right." ''What did you do?" said she. 

 *'Gave his boy Johnny a tin horn." ''Yes, and Johnny's 

 mother sent him over here to spend the day." 



Now, that is the way we producers do on the market. I 

 go to No. 1 store and sell tom.atoes at a dollar a basket. Then 

 I go to No. 2 and he tells me he does not want any. Then I 

 go to No. 3 and he tells me he has just bought from my next 

 door neighbor for fifty cents. I believe the yarn, get mad, 

 go to No. 4, and oflfer the tomatoes for forty cents a basket 

 to get square with my neighbor. Neighbor goes to No. 4 and 



