The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-03-11
CANNING FACTORIES

farmers to keep it supplied with
products Tallahassee Democrat.
Towns have clamored for them
newspapers have advised them, they
are known to be good things for any
section, yet they don't seem to sue
coed
There have been at least two good
cannin- factories in this section but
one is burned down and the other
is idle and has been for several
years.
There is no reason why such things
should not be kept running. except
the one given by the Democrat and
that is that the farmers cannot be
induced to supply them with the
necessary products.
The trouble is that farmers want
too much for their products and will
not furnish fruit and vegetables at
prices which will give the cannery
a chance to make any profit and the
prices are farmers would receive
would also give them profit but
not such big ono MS they usually
secure
In the north farmers claim to
make good money scllin. tomatoes
At Sc to 50 ton to the factories and
the farmers hero laugh at such
prices
One Of the canning factories hero
offered hundred pounds for Gull
pineapple and would pay freight so
all the farmer had to do was to
throw the pincapplcs in the ear right
at his packing house door and get a
cent pound for them or otherwise
throw them out on the Gull pile.
The latter is Just what the far
mer did and then paid $l.50 day
for man and team to haul his
Gull pile away and dump it on his
fields and thct omato growers did
virtually the Same thing and threw
all their Gull tomatoes away instead
of selling them to the canning fac
tories at a scasonable price
There were exceptions Ia these
rules but the exceptions were 50 few
that what they could have furnished
TO the factories would not have Kent
the canncrics running hardly Il
week.
It will take the hardest kind Of
times in this state to educate farm
ersto the point of making every cent
they can even Oft of culls and then
perhaps, canning companies will be
able to secure enough products to
Keep their factories running at Il
profitable rate at least part Of the
time. West Palm Beach Sun.
VIII Florida canning clubs add
any apprcciable amount to the guam
tity Of canned tomatoes for the coun-
try? According to tho Philadelphia
North American the scarcity of can
ned tomatoes is such that there is
almost panic among the big
Wholesale and retail dealers and they
are buying up tomatoes to be grown
this fall at 50 cents a dozen cans, al
though such advance sales in normal
years usually bring them TO the
whole saler at c. cents a dozen.
In 1891" the Philadelphia paper
cont inucs, the wholesale price of
tomatoes reached S a dozen for the
first time This was matched by
the price of $1lO dozen in 1898.
In 1902 the country experienced the
! greatest scarcity in its history and
the price went to S 60 a dozen. In
/ SOC the price went to $t.l5. but
since then has never gone above 81
until now. Wholesalers predict that
the price will go to $l.2J dozen
before the fresh spring crop reaches
tho market"
|
people of Florida? We have passed
! tomato fields in Dade county where
tomatoes. too ripe to ship, had been
dumped in heaps containing hun
dreds of bushels; and every year this
waste is accepted by the farmers as
a necessary part of the crops Eek
pensc"
Nor is this all People who have
| the opportunity TO get all the ripe
tomatoes they want for thecarrying
away from the fields do not can them.
Many farmers family in Florida
buys quantities of canned tomatoes
from the grocer who has bought his
goods. through various middlcmen,
from these same Philadelphia whole
sale houses who are facing the prob
lem of paying $125 a dozen cans be-
fore spring tomatoes of northern gar
dens come into market
It's an emincntly wrong situation.
Florida could feed the country Flor
ida could grow and can enough to-
matoes to stock every larder in the
Unitad States; bat instead, Florida
sends TO New England for her can
ned tomatoes, Florida lives out of