Evening star., 1914-08-08
that had SO much good
common sense back of 1t. ".. w..
Canning Industry Booming.

James canning venture promises to
bring in considerable ready money
| when she markets her wares this fall.
She already has made more than 500
glasses of jelly Of various kinds. about
200 pint jars of preserves and several
hundred jars of spiced and picked
fruits. She is now making apple butter.
turning it out at the rate OF about
fifty Jars a day. The merchant in
Washington who has contracted for her
output urged her to make all the apple
butter she could. He is furnishing her
the Jars at cost, charging them up to
her against delivery of the finished
product. This saves a considerable
drain on cash resources, hut sugar and
chant offered to advance any money
needed. but Jane declined his offer. She
! figured that she would buy more care
i fully and therefore more economically
+! If the money had to come out of cur
rent revenues, and, besides, she want
ed to get as large a lump sum as pos
sible when the stuff was delivered. She
already has made some deliveries and
has money to her credit. but she will
not draw on this. she says, unless 1t
becomes absolutely necessary.
She might have bought another outfit,
hired help and put up great deal more
apple butter. as the merchant urged her
to do But after talking it over with Mrs.
decided to limit her output. for this year
at least. to a quantity over which she
could exercise personal supervision 1t
was with sample jar of Mrs. Browns $
apple butter that Jane obtained the con-
tract. Mrs. Brown having offered to teach
and assist her in turning out a product OF
equal quality. After having contracted
with the merchant Jane urged Mrs.
Brown to go into partnership with her In
filling the order, but the latter firmly re-
fused She would have been willing to do
It, she said. had Jane not taken the tni-
tiative and arranged the business, but
she didn't propose to come in on good
thing at the eleventh hour. Jane argued
that Mrs. Brown was entitled to the bulk
of credit. as without her instruction the
apple butter would be a failure. but our
neighbor was adamant. She has become
infected with James enthusiasm, how
ever and has agreed next year to form a
partnership. AS it is, she is at our house
about every day. not only supervising. but
insisting upon doing share of the work
James Rural Program.
James program for Sunny Knoll is four
or five cows, chicken plant based on
500 laying hens, and fruit canning and
preserving. She wants to buy the place
with twenty acres adjoining. which may
be had for $65 an acre. She would grad
ually put our present eight acres and five
of the additional acres into small fruit
Strawberries, raspberries. blackberries,
currants, gooSeberries grapes and plums.
Another five acres she would put to ap-
pies, peaches, pears and cherries. 1t
would be several years before these would
come into bearing. but in the meantime
the ground could be used as run for
chickens as could all the small fruit
space except that devoted to strawber-
ries. This would leave ten acres for
pasture and growing part Of the feed for
chickens and cows.
Jane has it all figured out with pencil
and paper that this would be the most
profitable farming in which we could en-
gage with our limited capital, and. she
argues, it is business she could carry
on alone should | be summoned hence.
with the two horses we would need, would
soon bring the land into high state of
fertility. and with some sort of an irrigat-
ing system we ought to be able to grow
small fruits to beat the band.
Jane even has plans drawn for can
ming kitchen, to be built separate from
the house and equipped specially for the
WORK. She would reduce the making of
her different preserves and iellieS to ex-
act formulas and would hire most of the
work done. but each lot would be suffi-
ciently small SO that the Kitchen range
f1avorentight be preserved. 1t sounds at
times more or less like a pipe Dream
but ! am careful not to say. so. l can't
forget that with everything she has I'M
| dertaken so far Jane has made good much
more emphatically than ] have with my
part Of the farming enterprise.
Cow Problem Is Difficult.
| The question of keeping more than one
or two cows is something that would have
| TO have careful consideration. That one
| cow pays on a small place there isn't any
| doubt. 1t probably is fairly certain that
MI eiz ~
] ours with the additional ten acres which
| Jane plans to devote to pasture and feed