The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-02-25
CANNING FACTORIES WOULD PAY FARM.
ERs,

They Should be Established all Over the
sOuth-NO Section Better Adapted to Them
B. 1t Up by Home Capital.
Correspondence of The Progressive Farmer.
The South's great benefit is to be
derived from manufacturing. Your
supremacy as an agricultural region
is recognized, but the line of the
greatest operations will be in the
establishment of factories and mills
TO convert your produce into finished
articles for the market. I know
nothing that would pay more than
canning factories. They require
COMPARATIVELY SMALL CAPITAL,
stimulate the farming GLASS to grow
a greater variety of products by
affording them cheap market at
their own doors, give employment
TO numbers of persons, male and
female, who would other wise have
none, and send out a valuable food
product which will return money TO
circulate in domestic channels. An
other advantage is that the industry
can be built by home capital,
A canning factory is, In every re-
spsot, a home industry. The South
raises nearly every variety of fruit
and vegeta bles, and the industry
would thrive there. Especially
would it be an advantage to small
towns.
THE BEST PAYING PRODUCTS
TO put in oans are peaches, toma-
toes, peas, beans, corn, sweet pota
toes, berries, oysters, fish and
shrimp. The market demand for
these goods increases each year, as
the people learn the value of these
food products.
The Southern States should not be
forced TO purchase canned goods
from the North or West, when the
natural resources of your own ooun-
try offer such Inducements 80 the
esta ablishment of the industry. Some
two years ago l had occasion to
sample can of very fine Maine
born, packed in one of the leading
cities of the North. l remarked TO
the dealer that conld duplicate it
in the S Juth. He ridiouled the idea,
and said that cit couldn't be done
outside of the New England States.
| told him all right, l would prove
my assertion true later on. Some
three or four months afterward /
presented the gentleman with a can
of corn packed in the South by my
self, and asked him to sample and
express his opinion of the same. He
did so and at once said, "Take that
can, go into the market and tell the
dealers TO get down their best brands,
and yours will cut out with them.
You have got the corn TO do it with
If that is the kind of corn you are
packing in the South, you won't
have to hunt for buyers long they
will be hunting for you"
So small is the stock of canned
goods on hand, that the holder can
we'll afford, if necessary, to wait
until spring to dispose of it.
THE DEMAND FOR CONSUMPTION
increases disproportionately TO the
supply, and if oanners would reflect,
there is rarely any real cause for
This country Ia large,
facilities for distribution are increas-
ing, and the trade for canned goods
is growing. In every household
they constitute a portion of the
daily food, and they are cheap, ready
for use, and in every respect desir
able. Without them there are por-
tions of our country that would have
TO subsist on salt meat and bread
To the mine, the camp, and the
mariner, they are now indispens-
able.
The worst feature of the business
Is the ignorance of the buyers as to
the assortment of output. They
swallow any and all reports and few
are governed by sound Judgment.
Take the country at large this
year, and we venture to assert that
the pack does not exceed >three-fifths
Of an average one, in the face of lit
lie or nothing being left over from
.ast season. Most of our own prod
1ots were sold before they were
canned, or whilst being so. And |
The supply left here is a mere bags-
5elle.
The South can furnish fish, oysters, |