The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-29
WE GAN GAN AND SHOULD CAN.

WE CAN CAN AND SHOULD CAN. The season for canning fruits and vege- tables is practically over in this climate, but it is not too early to say something about what may be done in future. for certainly 1t is high time that tho people of Alabama should advance along this line and not continue to be dependent on the rest of the world.
 Some people have an idea that a can- nery is very expensive industry. but such is not the case. A recent article in The Southern Farm Magazine gives a detailed statement of the expense of it, ting up canneries of various capacities. From this we gather that tomato and fruit canning plant capable of putting up 5000 2-pound cans day will cost slightly over 800. while a universal canner for canning all kinds of friuts and vegetables, as we'll as fish. oysters, fowls. etc. at the rate of 15,ooo to 2ooOo cans day will cost $4s4, according to the detailed esti- mate given in the paper. These estimates do not include the steam boilers and fit- tings, but these are not expensive, and the entire cost of a plant which will put up $500 to 5000 cans a day will not ex- ceed sss6 to s4oo.
 There are doubtless those who regard canning as quite a modern discovery, but the practice goes back nearly e century. That there were various methods of pre- serving meats and other eatables prior to that time is true, but it was about the year 1S10i that Frenchman, a cook. in- vented the art ofpreserving various food stuffs in air-tight vessels. and from his experiments the business has grown until now canned foods are among the indis- pensables of modern housekeeping, as well as of travellers, hunters. seamen, soldiers and all others who wish to carry prepared food in safe and convenient form. Tn the entire realm of eating there is nothing so universal and indispensable as canned goods. It is just because of this universal de- mand, and of the immense quantities of it | used. that we have more than once in sisted that the people of Alabama should besbme more independent than they now are. If we go into any grocery store. | from the large wholesale establishments of the cities to the smallest country store, we will see canned goods occupying a prominent place, and each can has on it the label of some establishment outside of Alabama. They come to us, not by the dozen or by the gross but by the car load and outsiders get all the profits.
 If The Advertiser should z state that fruits and vegetables cannot be, grown in Alabama 1t would at once be denounced as 6 slanderer of our State and our people, as it would be, If we assert that these fruits and vegetables cannot be put up in Alabama for use at home and abroad it ought also to be slanderous, but is it? Is it singular that outsiders should think we cannot do anything when they see that we actually fail to do it? People are largely judged by what they do. not by what they say. ~'--~ It would be both interesting and aston5 ishing if we were able to say just how many millions of dollars go out of Ala bama annually for canned goods, and how many million dollars worth of our own products go to waste because of the lack of canneries. It would not be fair
 to say that nothing has been done. be-
 cause the business of canning has been
 carried on in various places in Alabama
 on a small scale, but something more is
 needed, and the figures we have given
 show that cannery is not an expensive industry. by any means. There are many
 farmers who could afford them, or a
 neighborhood could combine as they do
 in other things. The cans can be bought
 by the car load at $15 to $2O per $1.OOO for
 the two and three pound sizes. and 1t would be more economical for small
 establishments to buy their cans than
 to undertake to make them.
 We have probably said enough to make
 it plain that there Is much money to be made and saved by the establishment of
 canning plants in Alabama.