The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1889-01-30
Canning and Other Factories.

UOrl0S, duu we WISH Oh CnlS OCCASION TO
emphasize and reinforce what was then
said, especially as the season is fast APP
preaching when, as usual, a large guam
tity OF superior fruit and vegetables will
be like to go to waste. The amount of
which no use is made annually is said to
be nearly One-fOurth of the entire crop.
In no other country except ours would
such a waste as this be permitted, and
detriment to the farming interest.
Our greatest need, therefore, is canning
factories, to prepare for market this sur
plus of fruit and vegetables. There is no
sufficient incentive at present for growers
to increase their acreage, but a new and
powerful impetus would be given to agri-
culture by the establishment of such fac
tories as the truck raiser would then find
a ready market for the product of his
farm or grove, when the period for high
prices was over in the Northern market
a period often limited to barely six weeks.
Let us see how the thing works. Our
vegetables are shipped to the North, can
ned, taxed, and shipped back to us. We
spend thousands upon thousands of dol
lars forthese goods, which would afford US
handsome profit at home. Maryland,
New York and Connecticut kindly relieve
us OF supporting ourselves in that respect,
but make us pay roundly for the privilege.
We render tribute to them because we
lack the enterprise and thrift to go ahead
in that line ourselves. Bear in mind that
fruit which goes North and comes back
to us IN the form Of canned goods makes
two long journeys, with expensive freight.
age, where none is needed, for the goods
should be manufactured athome-noton only
that, but we should supply, in ameasure,
the Northern markets. 1t must pay the
canning factories in other States, for they
are increasing rapidly in number not
merely in the North, but throughout the
West. This, however, is not all; they are
being erected in Mississippi, Louisiana
and Alabama-but still Florida lags
behind.
A canning factory recently erected at
Crystal Springs, in the State first named,
has a capacity ofabsorbing one thousand
bushels of tomatoes per day. The pea
huller will shell one thousand in the same
time. All kinds of fruits and vegetables
grown in the vicinity will be used, and as
little except that which is unmarketable
will be sold to the factory, the quantity
that it is believed will be raised in that
section must be immense.
Canning factories are undoubtedly the
greatestneeds OF the State; these and other
home industries would do more to stimu-
could De-. sos4;ep. than anything else that
BILE objection to them; on I inc o. .,nssi-
ourcrops continue in bearing much longer
than in the North, or even in Mississippi,
with larger surplus after the markets
have become surfeited, than they do
there, and we fatter ourselves-of better
quality. How much longer are the citi-
zens of Florida going to be blind to their
own interests?
But tomatoes are not the only thingto
be canned by long ways. There are
peaches, plums, pineapples, pears, guavas,
figs and a host of other fruits. How
greatly the utilization Of these fruits, in
the manner Indicated, would benefit us
is almost beyond computation. Then
the Jelly is the fitting counterpart of the
canning factory. This State should be
as notable for it's jellies as it is for it's or
anges; and the capital required for such
enterprises is not extavagantly large.
Nor is this all. Cotton, iute, ramie,
palmetto, Spanish maguey, and other
fabrics, which grow here more readily
than in any other section, could be man.
tobacco. Sugar-cane raised here should
be converted on the spot into all grades
| of sugar and syrup-though there is now
a move in that direction. More than
this, it may be added, that tapioca, cas-
sava, corn, rice, and other -four and starch
producing grains and roots, could here,
better than elsewhere, be converted into
their proper forms for preservation and