1915. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
373 
Canning As A By-Product :: | 
By Miss H. S. Clark 
I 
[ Delivered in the prize speaking con¬ 
test before the N. Y. State Fruit Grow¬ 
ers’ Association.] 
IJIS year the members of the North¬ 
western Fruit Growers’ Association, 
;.t their convention at Spokane, are 
turning their attention chiefly to the 
question of making the best use of what 
has been waste fruit They have found 
that of their product about (50 per cent, is 
fancy fruit, while the bulk of the re¬ 
mainder is wasted. Now 40 per cent, is 
entirely too much to waste in anything. 
It is not economical or even business¬ 
like to have such a high percentage of 
waste. Accordingly these men are seek¬ 
ing ways of utilizing their low-class fruit. 
The men who are directing the work are 
proceeding along two lines; first, to pro¬ 
mote the healthy growth of canning, evap- 
Miss H. S. Clark. 
orating, or otherwise treating the waste 
fruit, and to assist in opening up mar¬ 
kets for such products. 
Use Of By-Products. —So far as I 
have been able to ascertain, no such con¬ 
certed action along this line has been 
made in New York, yet there is every bit 
as much need of it. This year especially, 
with the market affected by the war, and 
with the new grading law going into ef¬ 
fect, there is great need of the develop¬ 
ment of by-product industries. How 
many of our fruit growers are making the 
best use of their products? Are you get¬ 
ting enough from your low-class fruit 
even to pay for producing it? Some 
manufacturers make their real profits 
from their by-products. There are differ¬ 
ent ways of utilizing this fruit. Most 
farmers make some use of the evaporator 
and cider mill, but did you ever think 
of canning them? Why would that not 
be a more profitable way of utilizing tin' 
fruit? You probably think the cost of 
the equipment would be prohibitive, but 
really it is not. A good-sized can nor can 
be had for about $25, and will take care 
of an amazing amount of fruit with the 
least possible labor. Of course the glass 
cans are rather expensive, but they in¬ 
crease so much the attractiveness and 
quality, and consequently the sale of the 
fruit, that their use is still profitable. 
Developing An Earning Business. 
—It is no mere theory that a canning 
business can be developed on the farm, 
and that it is practicable in many cases. 
For instance, a couple of years ago a 
fruit grower found that drought and 
blight had injured the selling qualities of 
his peach and apple crops. The fruit 
was sound and good, but a large part was 
unsightly and rather small. The farmer 
had set a high standard for liis produce 
and felt that he could not afford to low¬ 
er it by selling this inferior fruit. Ac¬ 
cordingly he sought other means of pro¬ 
fitably utilizing the fruit, and finally 
came to the conclusion that it should be 
canned, and a market found for a super¬ 
ior grade of home canned goods. With 
a simple equipment and inexperienced 
workers, the whole crop was canned, put¬ 
ting up over fl.OOO cans of fruit in many 
different forms, and had on their shelves 
at the end of the season a most convinc¬ 
ing array of fruit, well canned, well 
cleaned, and attractively labelled, certain 
to stimulate the appetite of a possible 
consumer. They found that after count¬ 
ing in all expenses, even to depreciation 
of equipment, they had made an average 
profit of 10 cents on each can, which, at 
the rate of about 200 cans a day, is no 
mean profit. 
Possibilities With Small Fruits.— 
Such cases as this show the feasibility of 
canning on the farm, and the wide range 
of its application. Not only is it useful 
in taking care of the seconds and low 
class fruit, but is of especial value at 
times when the market is flooded with 
fresh fruit, or in case of a fruit that is 
hard to ship any distance. Last Sum¬ 
mer in a locality where there are many 
fruit farms, there was a large crop of 
peaches. The local market was flooded 
and many of the farmers, not having 
shipping facilities, let a good share of 
their fine peaches waste. Only a few 
thought to can them. They should have 
done what another man, under similar 
conditions, did with his cherries. lie 
found that he could not get enough for 
fresh cherries to pay for picking them, 
but he had them canned, and is now dis¬ 
posing of them for 50 cents a quart. 
This method has another great advantage 
in that not a bit of the fruit need be 
wasted. What is perfect in size and 
shape may be canned whole, and the rest 
can be well utilized in jellies, jams, but¬ 
ters or preserves. This way of market¬ 
ing seconds or waste fruit ought to help 
raise the standard of the fresh fruit mar¬ 
ket. If each fruit grower should soil 
directly only his first-class fruit, can 
what is well shaped of the seconds, and 
make the rest into jams, jellies or pre- 
s'erves.-.the market for each would be good 
and of a high standard. 
Marketing Canned Goods. — The 
question <>f marketing canned goods must 
bo carefully studied, as indeed must any 
marketing. Some women who have tried 
selling the surplus of their own canned 
fruit supply, in city markets or to friends 
in the city, feel that it is not a very 
profitable proposition. This, however, is 
not the way to market a product of any 
size. It has been found much better to 
cater to what has been termed a fancy 
trade. For this the product must be of 
a superior quality, and very attractively 
put up. The managers of big hotels or 
dining cars, the cafeterias, and fancy gro¬ 
cers. all will pay well for well-canned 
canned fruit put up in small jars for in¬ 
dividual use. At the home economics 
cafeteria at Cornell, little glass jars of 
jelly or preserves, with a net weight of 
one and one-half ounce, are sold for five 
cents. Everywhere there is growing a 
demand for these little jars as well as for 
the large ones, even up to the five gallon 
tin cans of apples used by the hotels. A 
good steady market, biff. one which is 
rather hard to get in touch with, is with 
the city women who want good home 
cooking, but are not in a position to do 
it for themselves. Such women are al¬ 
ways glad to be able to get good home- 
canned fruit, upon which they can de¬ 
pend for wholesomeness and purity. A 
trade established directly between thes" 
women and the farmer, is sure to bring 
comfort to them and profits to the 
farmer. 
Desiccated Vegetables. 
I AM sending herewith a clipping from 
the “Ladies’ Home Journal” for Feb¬ 
ruary, which ought to interest your read¬ 
ers if the scheme is feasible. To desic¬ 
cate everything that we can’t eat or sell 
and hang it in the garret against the 
time of need sounds good. Tiie II. N.-Y. 
has many times discussed dried fruit of 
all kinds but I do not recall reading any¬ 
thing on desiccated vegetables. By the 
way, can you tell us how the Germans 
make their “Erb Wurst”? It is said to 
be a kind of desiccated or evaporated 
stew pressed into compact cakes which 
require only boiling water to convert 
them into tasty and nourishing food. 
New York. j. l. s. 
The clipping referred to tells of a 
woman who learned how to dry vegetables. 
She interested a group of her neighbors 
in the business and they made money out 
of it. 
Our farm was mortgaged, and, try as 
we might, my husband and I could not 
get our heads above water. We had 
about given up when a cousin who had 
been visiting in England brought home 
tales of being able to buy over there 
desiccated vegetables in mixed packages, 
which, after being soaked an hour, were 
ready t stew, with results equal to the 
fresh articles. In Winter, when fresh 
vegetables were high, she said there was 
a huge sale for these. As a result I ex¬ 
perimented. I desiccated some vegetables 
and dried them in the sun. Then I 
soaked them for an hour in cold water, 
poured this off and put them in with 
some meat I had stewing. "In half an 
hour I had a tasty Irish stew, ready for 
the table. 
Have any of our people tried this with 
other vegetables than corn? We will 
turn the other question over to some of 
our German cooks. 
W INTER days are usually lost days. Why not work your wood lot in 
winter as you do your fields in summer ? There is as much profit 
in the average wood lot as in the rest of the acreage. Provided 
that instead of using the trees only for firewood, you get an American 
Saw Mill and saw the trees into lumber. 
It doesn’t make any difference if you never did it before. After a few 
days’ work with an American Mill you can turn out fine lumber. The only 
cost is fuel for your engine and the labor of yourself and the farm help, who 
have nothing much to do at this time. You can get all the firewood you 
need out of the tops and slabs. 
This “American” Mill is sold with or 
without wheels. Cuts 2500 feet a day with 
8 H. P. Easy to run—no skill required. 
Broadly guaranteed. 
Hundreds of farmers are making 
money off their wood lots because 
their American Mills are simple to 
operate, light and easy to move 
around, saw fast and clean, and 
are so sturdy and reliable, time , 
isn’t lost because of breaks. 
OfcourseallAmericanSaw S 
Mills are guaranteed. 
Send for catalog; today and 
select your American Outfit, 
which will be shipped 
promptly so you can get ♦ 
to work at once. f 
MAIL THIS 
COUPON 
TODAY , 
* 
+ AMERICAN 
ff SAW MILL 
MACHINERY CO. 
Hackettstown, N. J. 
iT (or nearest office J 
f Please send me your 
free book, “Making Money 
Otf the Wood Lot.” and your 
Farmer's catalog. 20 
You can make big 
money supplying lum¬ 
ber to your neighbors 
or to the lumber yard in town. 
You can also take your mill to 
your neighbor’s wood lot and saw 
out lumber from his trees. 
Here’s the way a farmer up New 
York State makes win ter days profit¬ 
able by working his wood lot. His 
name and address sent on request. 
“Last year I sold the wheelwright 2000 feet of 
white oak for $120. In two weeks I supplied a 
neighbor 40,000 feet of chestnut for a new barn, 
getting $40 a thousand. I made and sold all the 
shingles he needed for $5.50 a thousand. 
Neighbors bring their logs and pay me $7.50 a 
thousand for sawing, and my little American Mill 
turns out 4000 feet a day. My labor costs me 
$6.50 a day, and gasoline and oil $2.50, so my 
day’s profits arc $21 plus the sawdust and slabs.” 
American Saw Mill Machinery Co. / 
(Address our nearest office) f Name 
Hackettstown, N. J. New York Chicago S 
Atlanta, Ga. New Orleans Seattle ^ 
1 S A <ldress . 
Don’t Kill the Calves! 
— because you can’t 
spare milk to feed them. 
Give them a gruel of lin¬ 
seed meal with oatmeal. It’s 
more than equal to whole milk. Linseed 
is a laxative conditioner that contains the 
highest percentage of easily digested Protein — the 
nutrient that builds bone and muscle—makes glossy 
hides, bright eyes — healthy calves. 
The prize cattle of the world are fed 
on a ration containing linseed meal— the nu¬ 
tritive element that makes maximum production of 
butter-fat—keeps cattle in the “pink of condition.” 
When You Buy Linseed Meal, Insist on 
Linseed 
Meal 
»» ncii m uu Duy L,mseect me 
HYPRO 
€t 
100 Lbs. Heard Health to the Bag ** 
It is pure, unadulterated, and guaranteed by the largest manufacturers 
of linseeed meal in the world to contain 36% protein in the most desirable, economical 
and easily digestible form. Mix it with your grain feed or roughage. It makes more 
and richer milk—builds beef—conditions cattle. Horses, cattle, hogs and sheep eat it 
with a relish. It's appetizing. Prevents colic in hogs. 
Know Your Feed 
—and feed for the results desired. With the assistance of authorities throughout the 
United States, we have prepared a Ration Book containing expert feeding advice to fit conditions of 
every stock owner. FREE upon request. Write for your copy today. 
AMERICAN LINSEED CO. 
Dept. 31, lOO William Street New York City 
When you write advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a 
quick reply and a “square deal. ’ See guarantee editorial page. : : : 
