76 



CANNING THE SURPLUS 



we use at present, and that would allow an extra ten thou- 

 sand canners to start in and can five hundred cases each, 

 thus taking off the market in each section one thousand 

 bushels each year. I believe if we were to take from the 

 market one thousand bushels of tomatoes in each of ten thou- 

 sand markets in the United States, it would make a great 

 difference in our marketing problem. 



Canning To Maintain iVIarket Prices. 



And right here is where the real profits in the surplus can- 

 ning question come in. The profit in the home cannery is 

 not only in the actual profit we get in canning, but in the in- 

 creased price we get for the goods we sell in the fresh state. 

 Take any market you wish as an example. Take a certain 

 day in the tomato season when tomatoes are selling at a nor- 

 mal price of say fifty cents per half-bushel basket. This 

 price allows the dealers to sell the goods at retail for five 

 cents per quart, which price is quite satisfactory to the con- 

 sumer; and everyone is satisfied all along the line, producer, 

 dealer, and eater. 



Now, all of us gardeners, perhaps fifty or so, are produc- 

 ing and selling at this price say one thousand baskets per 

 day, just about enough for actual requirements; but tomor- 

 row some of us have an extra picking, and the next morning 

 we producers offer for sale one thousand five hundred bas- 

 kets instead of the required one thousand. We all see the 

 extra supply on the market and get scared. We begin to 

 drop prices so that perhaps the market will drop as low as 

 fifteen to twenty cents before we are all cleaned out. Per- 

 haps the next day and the day after and maybe for a week 

 there will be no more than one thousand baskets per day of- 

 fered on the market, but that is enough for actual require- 

 ments and the market stays down to the low figure just be- 

 cause there were an extra five hundred baskets thro^vn on 

 the market for one day. 



Do you not see that a little cooperative cannery in that 

 section would have remedied all this? When the growers 

 entered market that morning and saw the extra supply, they 

 one and all would have said, "Well, we will sell what we can 

 and what we can't we'll can," and they would have received 



