The morning call., 1891-06-27
THE OUTLOOK OF CANNING.


The fTuit-canning season opened a few
days ago, and the members OF the new can
ming combine are cogitating over their pros
poets. few facts are patent to all The
fruit crop is large and the quantity of
canned fruit put mp this year VIII be larger
than last year If the prices offered by can
ners are sufficient to call it out.
BY the time the whole fruit crop is picked,
in the East and on this Coast jobbers will
be able to reckon it up with some approach
to accuracy, and to determine what they
can afford to pay for canned fruit. OF
course there is price at which they Will
take our whole product. People will eat all
the canned fruit that is offered If it is cheap
enough. But when the markets are glutted,
consumers grow fastidiOuS. The cOmpeti-
ton which we are about to witness will
prove beneficial if it awakens our fruit
growers TO the knowledge that the peaches
grown in New Jersey, Maryland and Della
ware are excellent, and if our canned
peaches are to conquer the market of the
great valleys; they must be at least equal if
not better goods than the grocers of Chicago
can get from New York or Philadelphia. 1t
is wasting time and money to ship inferior
goods.
OF two fruits we have a practical monOp-
oily. One Of these is apricots, which are not
grown in commercial quantities in the East.
In this State We raise them in carload lots,
and there is no fruit which is more luscious
or more wholesome when it is properly
canned. Whether the business of canning
them has reached perfection, or whether, in
consequence of the absence Of competition,
il is caTelessly conducted, persons not in the
trade are not able TO Judge. But one thing
experience teaches. When canned apricots
are dear, or are inferior in quality, people
consume canned peaches instead. II rests
with the Gamers 20 decide whether We
shall receive the full benefit Of a market OF
which We now enjoy a monopoly.
Prunes are another fruit in which we have
no Eastern competition. 1t is impossible to
convert the Eastern plum into a dried
prune that will'sell. Our plums are natur-
ally suited for drying. Between the Cali
fornia prune and the German or French
prune it is sometimes hard to choose. The
European fruit has generally a fine favor,
but the California fruit is so much larger
and better looking that quite often it sells
for more money in New York and Chicago.
The pruDe promises TO be quite as prufta-
DE II utL 10 ldlct III ILLS OtdUc dS Tie
cot. We shall this year have something
like 5,O00,C Geo pounds Of prunes available for
export, which is equivalent TO 25,00O,0OO
pounds Of plums; the prunes are now worth
about 10 cents a pound. or cents for the
green fruit, but California prunes were
wanted last year at Is cents at Chicago and
they have sold as high as 20 cents. Very
few Of cur horticultural products sell as
high as this.
In fruit, as in everything else IT is quail
ity that tells. 1t is the best goods that
bring in money; second-class goods fire.
quently net loss. California is fitted to be-
come the orchard of the world. But it will
not become SO until human ingenuity and
huWan skill are enlisted IN helping nature.
There is a vague idea, especially among
new corners to this State, that fruit grows
itself, and that any man can be fruit
grower. No person Of common sense
imagines that he can make a boot without
apprenticeship, but there are lots of people
who imagine that they can become success
ful horticulturists without study, observa-
ton or labor.