The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-01-24

dozen jars of preserved fruit to the
United States in November last
was practically the inauguration of
an industry which, with certain
revisions in the United States
tariff, means a big thing to the
owner of land in the islands.
Thousands of bushels of fruits of
various kinds are thrown away
here every year, which in future
may be sold and bring return to
the producers. The canning factory
will give employment to people
during the season who otherwise
might be idle. In California
towns, where packing houses and
canning factories flourish as a
green bay tree, the wives and chill
dren of the fruit growers and small
farmers earn tidy sum during the
summer months by employment in
various departments of the facto-
ries. The canning factory is a
good thing for Oahu, and there is
another industry that will prove
advantageous to the fruit grower.
Out in the Iwilei district, just
back of the prison, is factory for
making the best quality of vinegar
that ever tickled the pallet of
gourmet. And the product is from
bananas and pineapples. The flavor
is mild and pleasant, containing
enough vegetable acid to bite with
out taking the enamel off the teeth,
or the coating from the stomach.
There is on hand at the factory
about 5000 gallons of vinegar made
principally from bananas that were
cut for shipment during the cholera
season and refused transportation
on account of the epidemic. Had
it not been for the vinegar factory
the 5000 punches thus utilized
would have been a dead loss to the
growers. Only one or two local
dealers handle this home product,
but when the factory gets into full
running order the vinegar that is
now imported will be hard to pro-
cure, for the reason that the vege-
table acid is so far superior in every
way to any other that it will have
the call.
The imports of vinegar to these
islands amounts to 10000 gallons
per annum. The new factory will
soon be in position to supply the
home demand and export hun
dred thousand gallons year. In
addition to the manufacture Of vim
egar the organizers of the industry
propose to have complete pack
ing business, and will put up in
jars, bottles and tins all sorts of
fruits for home consumption and
export. Mango chutney, which is
now made by some excellent house
wives and sold by grocers at 81 per
bottle, can be made at the factory
and sold for quarter of the price.
Little cucumber pickles sell
rapidly at high price. When the
canning and packing business is in
full operation-and the machinery
is soon to be ordered for 1.-THE
vinegar may be made at a third
less expense than now.
The building is a two-story one
and forty feet square. 1t already
has a 200-horse power engine and
large boilers, and four vats with
capacity of 5000 gallons of mash
each, and large copper kettles for
preserving purposes, operated by
steam. These are on the
ground floor. In the sec
ond story are eight generators
containing partitions filled with
birch shavings through which the
liquid percolates. Coming in con-
tact with the air it is at once oxy-
died and becomes a vegetable acid
superior in every respect to even
the best white wine vinegar. Ia
color the product of the banana is
a pure amber, while that made
from the pineapple is shade
lighter.
The temperature of the islands
is admirably adapted to the manu-
facture of vinegar by this process
owing to its never becoming too
cold. In the States, except in
some localities it would be impos-
sible to produce vinegar by the
same methods or at as small an
expense as it can be done here.
When in full operation the factory
will employ one hundred .sper-
ators.