CANNING THE SURPLUS 



75 



time you go into a grocery, if you will pick up a can of fruits 

 or vegetables, you will find that many times the label is com- 

 posed of what we may term the front and the back. The back, 

 in most cases, is a reproduction of the front, or has some mean- 

 ingless scroll on it to fill up the space. One-half of the label, 

 the part we will call the front, is all that is required to meet 

 the trade's and the law's requirements, to tell what is in the 

 can, where and by whom packed, and how much the contents 

 weigh. The other half, or so called "back," of the label could 

 just as well be used to carry an advertisement of the other 

 goods that are produced by the grower and packer. 



This part of the label, about four by five inches, would tell 

 the housewife just what vegetables and small fruits one grew 

 in season and where she could purchase them, and the beauty 

 of this ad. would be that it would cost nothing for printing 

 and distributing. The label printers charge no more for your 

 labels if they are full of printing than if they are half filled, 

 and the woman who bought a can of your goods if they were 

 first class would be interested to know what articles you 

 grew; and when she went to the store to purchase fresh 

 vegetables and fruits, you can depend on it that she would 

 surely ask for the articles she saw advertised on the can as 

 packed by you. 



Over-Supply of Canned Goods. 



Now, someone will ask, ''Suppose we all start in canning 

 the surplus. Shall we not flood the market with canned 

 goods?" I think not. I believe today that in ten thousand 

 market gardening sections of these United States a small 

 cannery could be started to take care of the surplus crops 

 without seriously disturbing the canned goods markets of the 

 country. 



Last year there were canned in the United States and used 

 by the consumers nearly fifteen million cases of tomatoes, — 

 thirty million dozen cans or about thirty million bushels of 

 tomatoes canned. There are in the United States today about 

 twenty million families, and it looks reasonable that each 

 family should consume an average of one can of tomatoes 

 each two weeks or one case of twenty-four cans a year. That 

 means an annual requirement of five million cases more than 



