CANNING THE SURPLUS 



71 



Profit. 



A word about profits. Men who have been for years en- 

 gaged in the business of commercial canning will tell you that 

 there is no great profit in the canning industry, and they are 

 right from the standpoint of the commercial canner; for all 

 his raw material has to be purchased from the farmers who 

 grow it and who get a good price for the products, not car- 

 ing what kind of produce they deliver. The average farmer 

 thinks anything is good enough for the cannery and has a 

 grouch if the canner finds any fault with the goods delivered, 

 and in consequence, the canner has to take anything he can 

 get and do the best he can with it. Then, labor in this class 

 of factories is very high, though not always very efficient, 

 and the output is so great that all goods have to be sold 

 through brokers and wholesalers, so profits necessarily are 

 low. 



But with the cooperative farm cannery or the home farm 

 canner, all this is changed. The factory is operated simply 

 to take care of the surplus. The owners of the plant are the 

 producers, so if prices paid for the raw material are high, 

 it does not hurt the owners of the factory, because the owners 

 are the producers themselves. On the other hand, if prices 

 paid for raw material are low and profits in canning corres- 

 pondingly high, the increased profits go back to the growers 

 and thus balance up their loss on produce. The help is more 

 efficient as a rule; for it is most likely composed of the home 

 boys and girls. Lastly, the prices received for the finished 

 product are always larger, as the output is less extensive and 

 thus can be sold direct to the retailers. 



To show what can reasonably be expected in returns, we 

 will figure out what it costs to produce a case of two dozen 

 cans of tomatoes. I take tomatoes as an illustration be- 

 cause this is one of the most extensive articles packed. A 

 standard No. 3 can, the can that holds a little more than a 

 quart, costs today in Syracuse, Baltimore, Chicago, Boston, 

 and a dozen or more other places, about seventeen dollars per 

 thousand cans. Tops and solder for these cans will cost 

 three dollars per thousand more, or twenty dollars per thou- 

 sand for cans and solder. That is forty-eight cents for a 



