El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-09-22
LOCAL CANNERY
WORKING FAST
Many Carloads Of Canned
Tomatoes to Be Produced
During the Season.

Tsleta is waking up. Down by the
depot, the canning factory. its latest
enterprise, is running full tilt" lex
cept when it rains and the tomatoes
can't be picked for canning). Out
of two tall black smokestacks streams
the smoke. The factory Itself is a
long adobe building and stacked all
around are brand-new boxes and the
noise and activity all around is good
TO see. At the side door stands
wagons OF red tomatoes ready to be
unloaded. They are dumped into a
long trough. where three or four
Nexicans sort them out, discarding
those TOO green or over-ripe-
Then comes the washing and a
regular Turkish bath they get. The
machine for this reminds one OF an
army caterpillar engine The toma-
toes are put on its back" which
looks like a perforated floor mat
and. turning on two immense wheels,
Il crawls along with its burden Of to-
matoes- first under q spray OF cold
water, then through steam and then
a spray Of hot water further cleanses
them and makes them easy TO peel
The engine then dumps them into
wooden buckets, which are carried to
the peeling tables There are ABOUT
IS of these peelers, all Mexican wom-
en- from Tsleta and Belen, who stand
in rows around the table.
Canning the Product.
In the whole factory there are ITO
workers. not skilled labor as yet, but
cheap. Like a big meat packing
house. everything is utilized. Since
the peelings and seeds are fine feed
for hogs, they are used by the neigh
boring farmers for that purpose.
Mexican women and men both i'll
the cans and then they are passed
N
Mr. Cook, the manager Of the can
ming factory, stated that much labor
would have been saved II they had
had the proper kind OF can but oW-
ing to the scarcity OF tin, no can FAC
tory could guarantee TO furnish the
specified amount q cans, 50 this year
the factory labors under the disad-
vantage Of using the old time solder
ing method.
The cans are next placed in a great
iron bucket, holding about $50 cans
each These are swung around and
immersed in deep pits OF oolllng
water for IS minutes, that being the
time required for cooking them IN
FL PasO's altitude
Then comes the labels; that makes
Il a finished product.
Making @TomatO Paste"
Spaghetti" so dubbed by his fol-
low-WOrkers, the Italian who presldes
over the tomato paste" is rusnlng
around the great iron pots OF DOl--Ll5
tomatoes This tomato paste Is
quite a new thing in this part OF the
country and consequently there is no
demand for IL. This is another Made
in FL Paso" product 10 boast OF The
tomatoes that are too small for can
ming are all put into the boiling
cauldron" and cooked till they be-
come a liquid pulp, smooth, seedless
and slinless- No seasoning is used
except salt The Italians, who are
great soup eaters" use this in max
ing SOUP. The small cans are sold
for 5 cents apiece, but are now all
sent 10 New Orleans, where the de-
mand is greater than the supply
stockholders Furnish Tomatoes.
The stockholders in the factory are
the main producers OF the tomatoes,
J. J. smith having about p acres in
tomatoes and Geo. Pendeu about the
same acreage. When the factory runs
each Of these men averages about
500 per day. While the factory has
been running only a few days, five
carloads have been shipped and they
expect TO ship 20 TO 50 care before
closing this year. Then comes the
sweet potatoes. This year there are
hardly any pears or peaches, but IN
the future the factory will have all
IL can do. FL PasO VIII use most OF
these canned products, but even then.
the factory viii only furnish about
half Of what is usually shipped in