Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-11-18
THE MAKING OF FOOD.

How the Business of Producing Things
to Eat Has Grown in Few Years.
The influence of the provision
trade on the development of the
countries of production does not con-
Germ us directly, but in considering
the subject as a whole some allusion
must be made to it. The prepara-
ton of food for expectation has been
o source of prosperity wherever t
has been able to establish itself, but
among the many regicus that have
made money by it the United States
have profited the most. They were
first to begin, on large scale at
least, and they have gone on until
they may be said to be growing
everything. Though the larger part
of their products is already required
for home use, their shipments else
where have become a business of
great gain to them, and have aide d
largely in t opening of new terri
tories, but it be remembered that,
unlike us, they live exclusively on
what they raise, and only send away
their surplus.
The canning trade of the west has
been carried to it's actual success, not
by expectation, but by home con-
sumption. OF the 100000 tins of
fruit prepared in California in 1890
only 147, 600 are shown to have been
shipped abroad from Californian
ports. All the rest went east" and
though we must allow largely for
expectations from Chicago, which
has become great distributing cen
ter, it is beyond doubt that the
greater portion of the rest was used
for native wants. In the matter of
fruit the yield can hardly keep up
with the home demand, although its
increase is so rapid that the quanti-
ties of many sorts of both timed
and dried fruits are doubling from
year to year. And so it is in many
other trades. The pack of timed
salmon on the Pacific coast affords
almost the sole example of overpro-
duction. 1t reaches to about $780,
900 cases, of which British Columbia
furnishes 100000 and the United
States 1,200,0 ,00O The market cannot
absorb all this, and the make will
have to be cut down.
The provision trade of Chicago
now attains an annual income of
&2S, 900, 600, although meat canning
has spread away from it's great home
to many new points out west, and is
prospering especially at Cedar
Rapids, Sioux City and Kansas City.
Beet sugar making is also on the in
crease. In Canada, too, there has
been much progress, especially since
the opening of the Canadian Pacific
railway; but in comparison with
what is happening in the States,
Canada seems fast asleep.
Australia is only beginning; but
she is trying her hand at many prod
ucts, and there is good ground to
hope that, as the years pass on, she
may become the greatest of our pur-
veyors. If she could cure the earthly
taste of her wines, they might be
largely sold among us. India is aug
menting her shipments to us, and
there-as almost everywhere indeed
food of various sorts is assuming
an important position among ex
ports. In Europe itself the pro-
luction of many of the more deli
,ate articles is steadily gaining
Malta and Teneriffe are
supplying us with increasing guam
titles of potatoes, and even in such
IN out of the way little country as
Bosnia an important commerce has
grown up in dried plums, from 15,-
100 to 10000 tons being sent away
ZACH year, according to the crop.
All the world is gaining in pro-
PORTION as we gain ourselves. Black
woods Mag zine.