Omaha daily bee., 1883-09-13

the bulk of it to the canneries at whatever
figure they are pleased to offer. One
firm in San Francisco already controls n
large proportion of the canned product
of the state, including that coming
from the largest canneries of San Fran
cisco and Oakland and San Jose:
and even should they fail ultimately in
getting the whole business of the state
into their hands, as is their aim, the out
side canneries will nodoubt find it totheir
interest to enter into an agreement fixing
the prices to be paid for fruits. Thus
what has been regarded as the great friend
and developer of our infant industry bids
fair in q few years to become a merciless,
grasping taskmaster, selling to itself the
profit which the grower has earned by
toll and study and allowing him but the
barest livelihood.
What, then, shall be done to avert the
impending evil2 1t may be suggested by
some hat the farmer has recourse to two
methods, either of which would secure
the object sought.
First-Let each fruit-growing district
of sufficient size erect q cannery of its
own and run it upon the cooperative
plan.
Second-Let the farmers Of the State
form a defensive Union regulating the
price at which fruit be sold.
To the first of these propositions there
are several objections. For instance, 9
district may be rich in fruit but poor in
bank accounts, and to start a cannery
and run it for a season requires con.
siderable capital. Again, there are
weighty objections to the use of goods
preserved by the canning method, as will
appear later.
The second proposition is theoretically
better, but against it initiates a fact
which might also be urged with force
against the first. Farmers as a rule are
poor business men and apparently unable
to organize properly for any purpose.
Their comparatively isolated life, each on
his WI domain, the nearest neighbor
several miles away-seeing their farmer
friends once a week, or perhaps not so
often, exchanging notes and experiences
for the quick details of business and made
them blind to the advantages of organized
union. 1t is true that grange work is
correcting this to some extent, but even
now-as in the %past-their toll enriches
the transporter, the broker, the shipper,
the miller, the Gamer, the dealer and
the army of middle-men through whose
hands their produce passes before il
reaches the consumer, while they them
selves are too often forced to be satisfied
with a mere subsistence and this simply
because they fail to appreciate the power
which capital Yields for their defeat
concerted action!
No! for immediate relief at least the
farmer need not look to either of these
plans. But there is another, the adop.
ton of which will make him perfectly in.
dependent both of local market and can
ner, and enable him to secure always 6
good price for a good article-if not sell
ing at once, then by holding for better
quotations. 1t is to evaporate his OWL
fruit-a method of preserving which the
writer believes will ultimately almost en-.
tirely supersede canning.
The term 'dried fruit" at once conveys
to most minds the familiar picture OF
tough, gritty; worm infested slabs of din.
gy color, cured upon some shed by the
combined influence of sun and damp,
dust and dirt and the friendly offices OF
insects and birds. OF such stuff this ar.
ticle does not treat. / speak here of good
fruit which, treated in one of the several
good evaporators now in use, is deprived
by heat of the element of decay-the wa.
ter-so retaining, however, the essence OF
the fruit that when subsequently treated
with water it will nearly approximate in
taste and appearance the fresh fruit.
Our friends in the east cannot make raj.
sins, and with them this term and
''dried grapes" are synonymous. But
Mr.. Briggs, Mr.. Blowers, and oul
other ralsin makers would be Justly
indignant were the inviting layered pro.
duct of Their Muscat and Sultana vines
to be designated as ''dried grapes" A
like distinction must be made between
the dried fruit of the past and the ovapo.
rated fruit of the present, and better
still, that which the future will see. This
fact is significant: In the same eastern
market the sun-dried fruit sold for 3 ia
8 cents per pound, while the evaporated
fruit commanded 40 cents. 1t should be
said, however, that this was an excep,
tional price for the latter-it usually
brings 20 to 30 cents.
There is, / think, no good reason why
dried fruit should not be made attractive
and profitable as layered figs and raisin.
and it is now fast approaching that de
gree of perfection.
TzazEs'=zss" THE GREAT GERMAN