OUR VEGETABLE CANNING INDUSTRY. 



217 



cent project. They have learned the art of propagating 

 the hardiest kinds, and ivies, fuchsias and geraniums 

 flourish under their care. 



The general mission, known as the New York Flower- 

 Mission, whose rooms are at 104 East Twentieth street, 

 does active work from May to No- 

 vember in distributing both flowers 

 and fruit. Four hundred towns in 

 the vicinity of the city send contri- 

 butions, and Smith, Amherst and 

 Vassar colleges also send flowers. 

 Not only hospitals of all sorts, but 

 "homes" for the aged and infirm 

 are now included in the work of 

 distribution. Flowers come in all 

 sorts of ways. Those who under- 

 stand the work either make them 

 in small bouquets or separate the 

 varieties, laying them in flat bas- 

 kets with layers of wet cotton bat- 

 ting between. Often they come in 

 great bunches and must be sorted 

 and made over. Railroads and ex- 

 press companies deliver them free, 

 and each year the interest increases. 

 Some donors make a specialty of 



one flower. Pinks come in profusion from one well- 

 known giver, and an unknown contributor, registered as 

 the "pansy-man," last year sent in thousands of his 

 favorite flowers in the season ; while from another source, 

 in one year, came 1,800 fragrant pond-lilies. 



Distribution is the heaviest task. City missionaries, 

 Bible-readers, nurses and druggists throughout the poor 

 districts all cooperate in the work, and last year saw the 

 distribution of over 100,000 bouquets and bunches of 

 flowers among the sick and the poor. Women prefer 



Floral Vista from a New York Mi 



roses, and the children clutch at anything with color and 

 sweetness. Men in hospitals beg for pinks, and look 

 after the distributors with hungry eyes. The Flower- 

 Mission we know will gladly make good use of all the flow- 

 ers that American Gardening readers may send them. 



OUR VEGETABLE-CANNING INDUSTRY. 



A REVIEW OF THE SITUATION. 



LD-FASHIONED ways are 

 so rapidly giving place to 

 new in the canning of toma- 

 toes, corn and other vege- 

 tables tor commercial pur- 

 poses, that the business, 

 though of recent origin, is 

 already assuming vast pro- 

 portions. These goods are 

 now to be found on the 

 shelves of every grocery the 

 world over, and being reason- 

 ably cheap they grow rap- 

 idly in favor with every-day 

 people, as articles of ordinary diet. Such enormous 

 increase in the consumption must naturally invite the 

 attention of willing producers of vegetables. 



Indeed, our advice is frequently asked by subscribers 

 concerning the profitableness of canning tomatoes and 

 sweet-corn in a commercial way. An inquiry of this 

 kind is evidence enough in itself that the inquirer is not 

 in a condition to compete with experts who have made a 

 study of it for years, and who probably selected for their 



operations just the locality that to them seemed to offer 

 the most favorable conditions for success. Consequently 

 we have never felt justified in offering the least encour- 

 agement to such ventures. 



To engage in canning vegetables commercially, is by 

 no means so simple a matter as many of our inquiring 

 friends seem to suppose. Some interesting data are given 

 in the report of the statistician of the Department of 

 Agriculture, for December, i8gi. 



" The people of this country," says the report, " prob- 

 ably enjoy a wider dietary than those of any other 

 nation in the world, and to supply the needs, necessities, 

 and even whims of appetite, there is a constant striving 

 on the part of those engaged in the different branches of 

 the canning industry to attain superiority of product^ 

 novelty of preparation, and general excellence combined 

 with reasonable cheapness of result." It will be seen 

 from this how poor the chances are for one ignorant of 

 even the first principles of the business. 



This is further emphasized by the remarks of the sta- 

 tistician in regard to the canning of green corn ; 



"It is only within comparatively recent years," he 

 says, "that successful methods have been followed in 



