The Jersey City news., 1902-11-08
new JERSEYS
CANNERIES
Preservation of Fruits and
Vegetables Give Employ
ment to Many Jer-
seymen.
INTERESTING STATISTICS
Chief William Stainsby's Re-
port on One of the States
Most Important In
dustries.
INTERESTING STATISTICS
Fspecial to @The Jersey City News."l

Especial to "The Jersey City News."]
TRENTON. Nov. 8, 1902.-William
Stainsby, chief of the New Jersey
Bureau of Statistics, has had prepared
an article on the fruit and vegetable
canning industry of New Jersey. There
are few industries, if any, more intimate
" related to the growth of population
and the commercial and industrial devel-
opment of the civilized world than the
process for the preservation of food COM
monty known as canning" To prevent
the decay of articles of food, and pre-
serve unimpaired their flavor and nutri-
tive qualities for long periods of time,
is an end that has engaged the thoughts
and exercised the ingenuity of man from
the earliest time.
Before the discovery of means for
doing this. life was very much on the
feast or famine plane. The crops OF
each season were consumed where grown
or allowed to rot. for the superHuity
could not be carried over to meet the
wants of other years when nature was
not so bountiful Through the process of
canning as at present carried on, the re-
serve stock of food supplies has become
practically inexhaustible. The products
of all climes are interchanged, and the
luxuries that grow only in certain locali-
ties are now consumed in all.
EXPERIMENTS OF CENTURIES.
The perfect methods now in use are
the results of experiments extending
backward for centuries. Evaporation
and the use of salt were the only meth
DDS known or practised in the preserva-
tion of foods until about the beginning of
the nineteenth century. The French
Government enlisted the interest of
scientists in the subject of preserving
foods for sea service by the offer of a
large reward for a successful and prac-
tical method of doing it. The hermetic
scaling of foods in vessels and Their i'm
mersion in boiling water to neutralize
the effects of the air remaining within.
was the formula finally evolved and
adopted.
The process was given out to manu-
fac.urers and soon preserved foods were
being produced in every country in
Europe. The process was patented in
England-fsh fruits and vegetables
being the materials handled, and every
possible effort was made to keep it O.
secret.
ESTABLISHED HERE IN 1920.
This could not be done, however, for
any great length of time, and within five
years after its introduction in England,
workmen from establishments there had
brought a knowledge of the process to
the United States. The industry was es-
tablished here about 1920; the first es-
tablishmcnt being in New York City.
The formula soon became known, and
food preserving establishments sprang
up in all the large cities of the country.
The cans took the place Of glass jars to
a large extent, these being less liable to
be broken in handling, and costing less
for transportation.
Patents were issued to the inventor of
the tin can, and very extensive industry
soon grew out of making them. Until a
comparatively recent date, the cans were
made by hand, and the process, which
was slow and expensive, added materially
to the cost of tie food which was packed
in them.
MACHINE MADE CANS.
Improsementsin the cans and in the
method OF producing them were made
frcm time to time. until the perfect ves-
sci now in general use was developed.
The can is now entirely a machinery pro-
duct and costs but little compared with
the crude ones of earlier times that were
made by hand. In many New Jersey
oauneries both fruit and vegetables are
handled, aud the cans used BY several