The Brownsville daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1897-1910, 1909-01-21
THURSDAY JANUARY 81, 1909.
CANNING INDUSTRY
SHOULD PAY.

An enterprise which should appeal
TO every farmer of the valley is the
home canning industry as proposed
by B. NJ. Anderson of Palestine, Tex
as. secretary of the Home Gamers
Association. As was stated by Mr..
Anderson in his address here last
Saturday before the farmers insti-
stute, home canneries may be the
means of saving annually a great
amount of fruits and truck that
otherwise go to waste, and turning
it into ready money for the farmer.
Only a very small capital is required
to start this industry, the apparatus
used in canning being only an open
kettle arrangement with trays on
which to set the cans. The cans can
be bought for very little cost, es-
pecialIy when an association is or
ganized and the cans bought in car
lots there being from $4,000 to 1907
600 cans in a car, according to the
size of the can. Both pound and
pound cans are used.
The labels in lots of 100000
would cost for the first lot $1.5S per
thousand, each succeeding lot will
cost about $1.OO per thousand so Mr..
Anderson states. The crates OF cases
are also quite inexpensive.
It requires very little experience
for home canning to produce an ar
ticle far superior to that placed on
the market by most large canning
factories. 1t is a well known fact
that great many of the canning fac
tories in the United States use only
Gull peaches and other fruits in what
is generally labeled Choice Table
Fruit In the cheaper grades such
as pie peaches, etc. the largest per
ton of the contents of the cans are
actually nothing more than pump
kins. the latter also forming the prin-
cipal ingredient in practically all of
-the tomato catchup which we buy
The home canning process places
upon the market true fruit which
is also clean, thus creating a demand
and usually the demand for these
home canned products is much great
er than the supply The selling of
the finished products is conducted
through the association which now
has contract with one of the largest
wholesale firms in Texas to handle
their entire output this year, Mr.
Anderson states.
This canning is all done by the
cold process, and tin cans are recon-
mended as they are less expensive
and are said to preserve the flavor of
the fruit better than glass jars. The
process is a simple one. For instance
to can peaches. first peel and slice;
wash thoroughly in clean, pure water
and put them in cans, pouring over
them the syrup. The syrup is made
by dissolving sugar in water in the
proportion of one quart of best gran
ulated sugar to three quarts of wat
er. Fill the can to the top. Then
place cover over can and seal it. The
solder is already on the top of the
can. making it only necessary to run
the soldering iron around it to seal
it. The cans are then placed in boil
ing water. the water covering the
cans and allowed to boil for fifteen
minutes after which they are taken
out and after the labels are pasted
upon them they are ready for the
market One bushel of peaches will
make from 20 to Is cans. Tomatoes
are canned in the same manner, only
no syrupis used in canning them. Veg
etables and fruits canned in this man
ner are not only vastly superior to
the goods placed on the market by
the leading manufacturers, but they
lose very little if any of their natur-
al flavor by the process
There is already in this valley a
large amount of cabbage, beans. on
ions and other vegetables that go to
waste annually. These are usually
those classed as culls, though some
times an unfavorable market at just
the right time will also prevent the
shipment of the choicest. 1t will be
only a few years until the valley will
also be producing vast quantities of
peaches, figs. and other fruits, which
viii also leava equallyas large amount
of waste, and which could be utilized
for canning making a good margin of
profit for the farmers, and curtailing
this annual loss from waste