The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-16
MEETING TODAY ID
 DECIDE ON CANNING
 PLANT PROPOSITION
Farmers From All Over Dis trict Invited to Confer ence at the Chamber
 of Commerce

At the Chamber of Commerce this
 morning at Il o'clock will be held the
 joint meeting of the farmers of Jefferson county and the chamber to discuss the
 possibilities of new canning factory for
 Birmingham. Invitations by the hundred
 have been sent to farmers and truckmen
 personally throughout the immediate vii
 cinity of Birmingham, urging them to be
 present and tell what they are willing to
 plant and do for the encouragement of a
 canning factory large enough to handle everything brought to it's doors. This
 would mean a cash market for anything
 that could be put into cans.
 At this meeting it is hoped to finally
 settle the question of whether such an in-
 stitution shall be started at once or the
 subject dropped. The Chamber of Com
 merce is taking a great interest in this
 much-needed project, and if the farmers
 will only turn out and give their views it will not take long to come to a de-
 cesion. The tillers of the soil around the Birmingham district have been handi- capped in the past by having no place to market their surplus fruit and vegetables,
 and in many instances have hauled the stuff back home and fed it to stock If
 cannery should be planned and built ct
 once it would be ready to handle any
 thing grown by the time the stuff was ready for the market. Many truckmen have expressed themselves as being will ing to plant their acreage with the idea
 of selling only wholesale to the cannery,
 thus saving the time lost each day ped-
 ding about the city. They claim it would be more profitable to get back home and work their stuff in the fields than 1t would to lose half of each day peddling- MRS. MATHIS TO SPEAK The main speaker will be Mrs. G. H. Mathis, field agent for the Alabama Bankers association, who is in Birming- ham this week helping the city solve some of its economic questions. Mrs.
 Mathis has been through Maryland, the
 Carolinas and other states where the canning industry thrives and for tunes are made by building up certain brand of goods and then holding this one brand up to standard at all times by this means the consumer soon learns to ask for this brand, knowing he will get the same grade of contents at all times. Never was the time so ripe for an undertaking like the proposed canning plant in Birmingham, said Mrs Mathis yesterday. ''Such move would give en- couragement to the farmer and truck man. They would have market place right before them in concrete form, and could lay off an acre or two in this vege- etable, another acre in something else, land so on By this method the patch of any one article would be large enough to allow him to take at least wagon load to the factory on any haul. The next day he could select the output from another acre, and so on.
 Birmingham is one of the largest con suming markets in the south, having as lit does some 100000 mouths to feed daily. And then again, with parent plant To- cated here community canneries could he established all over the state under the direct supervision of an expert em- ployed by Birmingham headquarters. A registered brand could be put on the mar ket and instead of shipping 1000 carloads of canned goods into Birmingham each year, we could ship that amount out, besides having all we needed at home to supply the local demand.
 A GOOD INVESTMENT
 At the meeting of the farmers and the Chamber of Commerce this morning IT will endeavor to lend all pos sible help to the promotion of this much needed industry. Anyone with idle capi- tai would make no mistake to invest in this undertaking. provided the farmers can be lined up and will cooperate with the scheme.
 "One other point could stress, and one that has made similar undertakings successful in other states. would be the setting aside of a few thousand dollars of the capital stock to be known as the seed and fertilizer fund. By this mean the canning company could advance fer tilizer and seeds on contract security to all who would plant with the understand ing that their output was to be sold ex- clusively to the factory. This would in- sure quick crops and good stuff, as all vegetables should be forced and grown as rapidly as possible to insure tender stuff to can. The seed and fertilizer would be paid for with the earliest crops, and thus the money loaned out in early spring or fall would be coming back at all times to be loaned out again. This way of doing business gives the farmer new hope and sure market, something he has never enjoyed before. hope to see a large turnout of business men and farmers at the Chamber of Commerce
 this morning"