Smyrna times., 1875-06-23
Canned Goods.

Association in Philadelphia, having arrived |
at an amicable agreement, which will be
tidlngs as important to the culinary depart |
ment of the country as a like honorable |
adjustment of difficulties between railroad
capitalists would be to its financial interests
The packing and sealing of those little
papered tin cans which stare at us out of
every grocer'S window, or on top of every
ash-cart, has rapidly grown to be one of the
large manufacturing industries Of the coun-
try, employing working capital Of $20,O00,-
600. From one to two hundred millions Of
these cans are annually "packed with
every variety of fish, flesh, fowl, fruit, and
vegetable to be found from Maine to
Oregon" and scattered over the country.
The growth Of this particular industry has
an odd bearing OH our social and domestic
life, worth attention for moment. Forty
years ago, the time and thought Of the
heads of household were required, not
only as now, to find money to buy food, but
literally to find the food. During the
Summer months the markets were laden
with cheap and plentiful provisions. Daring
tho Winter and early Spring, especially in
the country, there would have been famine
equal to that prefgured by Pharaoh lean
kline, if the mother Of the family had not
given at least twothrd9 of her time to .ho
saitins down of meat, making Of lard,
pickles, preserves, and drying Of vegetables
and fruits. Rank or wealth gave no i'm
munity from this heavy annual duty.
Martha Washington and Dolly Madison
were forced to look as well to the ways of
! their households" in this regard as did the
wise woman Of Solomons days whose worth
was beyond rubes, or else they found them
selves with lean larders in the days Of need
There are few of our middle-agcd readers
born outside Of the large cities who have
not an irksOme remembrance of how much
of the time and the talk of the household
went to the pork in the brine or the beef
drying over hickory smoke, or the long
glistening rows Of jars filled with ruby or
amber .jellies. If women did not then live
to eat, they lived i'll great measure to
make ready for men to eat. Certain
shrewd old housckeepers used even then to
grOpe after air-tight methods of preserving
food; they tipped the stems of grapes with
wax, swathed them in cotton, sealed bottle,
Of berries, and buried them under ground
: Then came the reign OF hermetically sealed
bottles, when for two months Of the yeal
: every kitchen was full of boilers of ho
{ water and boilers Of Steaming vegetables
t soldering irons and unskilled workwomeI
agonizing over scalded fingers, or splintereC
glass, or fermenting jars going off like salvo
= of artillery in tho cellar. These were tn,
pioneers who bore the burden and heat o
+ the day. The canned goods packers at las
A took the field, and the housekeeper's toll
i wore at an end. She need not take off he
$ glove to write her orders in Septembel
and presto! her pantry shelves are fille
|, with little cans ready to melt into deliciou
; soups, or meat, or all the wealth Of tn
fields or gardon Our packers have til
1 work of magicians to do, and would be pal
4 like magicians but for the fact that on
;. hOusekceper still declares that their caI
= are not as her own cans-they lack q certai
G honesty Of flavor, weight, and substanc,
d Neither do they as yet compete with til
French canned goods. Hence came til
necessity for the present convention, til
q packers finding it expedient to agree upo
: a standard size and weight of their cans
70 order to push fraudulent and inferior gooc
% out of the market.
ia There is no reason why this preparation
II food should not become as much of a fir
ns art in the mandatory as it has been in Il
il household, nor why our packers should n
at wholly occupy their own and foreign field
st Advocates of tho enlargement of woman
70 sphere" regard the discovery of cannii
rs and of sewing-machires as interpositions
ne Providence for her especial deliveranC
The wife and mother, say they, is FREE
ne from the necessity of drudgery to feed al
he clothe her household she can becor
ut artist physician, trades-wOman, author. al
he by an hours work with pen or pencil ca
he enough to buy a months provision whi
-er may all be true enough. But when tn
70 further, and rate the women who We
Inn obliged to spin, sew, or make jellies as OF
HE cooks and drudges, or in any whit infer
to the "emancipated female" they n
L. take. The head of an old-fashioned hou
on hold required as fine tact and execut
i.b ability for its management rs the you
70 woman who lives by her wits, by newspal
writing or agencies, to-day, and the hou
orr hold itself, when well-ordered, was as
,ho mirable a work Of art as any pretty lii
, u bunch of grapes on canvas or a weakl
yyos poem. Rcady-made clothing and res
ooo stored food, however, will leave wives {
,o,, mothers free to take their proper place
society and as companions for their
liz bands and educators of their childl
With which end in view, let us hear
.o1 wish the fullest of measures to all tin {
;l1o and of success to their packers.--N.
Tribune
ANOTHER PoTATo BUG EXTERMINATo
red. A farmer says that if at night fire is /
at both ends Of a potato patch the bugs