The Garden Island. [volume] (Lihue, Kauai, H.T.) 1902-current, 1918-02-12

|
| cannery is only employed on Satur-
days on this crop, as the output is
| comparatively small. During the busy
season, in summer. when the pines are
! ripening rapidly, the factory is run
ming at full blast. and is then a very
! busy place, when 1000 cases of twenty
| four cans each are turned out. This
makes $4,000 cans, which seems a
large output, yet there are canneries
at Honolulu which turn out five or
six times as much.
The entire output of the pineapple
| canneries have been Communicated
by the government, for the use of the
army. That is. all the highest grade.
The canneries are instructed not to
sell any of the Al grade to dealers
until the army has been supplied, and
not to send to the army and navy any
but the best grade. So that in all the
island pineapple canneries now there
are orders for goods which were sent
in 1917, which have not been filed,
and may not be filled for some time.
There are enough orders ahead to
keep all the canneries busy for at least
a year ahead. Twice the amount of
the present product of the islands
could be sold if it could be procured
1t takes twenty months to ripen
pineapples which are planted from the
rattoOns, and twelve months to ripen
those which grow from the shoots
which remain on the main plant after
the crop has been harvested The
company grows about eighty percent
of the pineapples which are canned
here and the remaining twenty per
cent is purchased from individual
growers on homesteads.
The waste in canning formerly am
ounted to thirty percent, as the fruit
must be cut to exactly fit the can, and
this leaves a large percent of rind.
The core is a little harder than the
main portion of the fruit, and it has
always been cored out by machinery.
The flavor of the cores, however, is
good, and for some time back they
have been run through a machine
which cuts them into fiat, round sec.
tions about an inch across and half
an inch thick These are used by
candy manufacturers, who preserve
them in sugar and add a coating of
chocolate.
The canning of pineapple is now
fine science. The pines are allowed to
thoroughly ripen, and are in the can
before night, with no possibility for
deterioration before or after they are
in the can. The fruit is cut to size by
a machine which acts on the principle
Of a gunwad cutter, and is then sliced
to an exact size. The core is also re
moved by a cutter, before the slicing
process takes place. After the fruit
reaches the cannery and is placed in
the cutting and trimming machines, it
is not again handled with bare hands
All operatives wear rubber gloves.
After the fruit has been placed in
the cans, it is handled by automatic
machinery all the way through.
Formerly all timed goods were sol.
dered. Pineapples, and in fact nearly
all other timed goods, are capped
without the use of solder The fruit
is heated in a steam tank to a TEN
perature of 2l0 degrees. The lid is
then clamped on with a reamer, which
makes a double seam, turned under
and clamped on tight. The cans then
pass into a second steam tank, where
from this last tank, the can naturally
contains considerable steam under
pressure. When the can is allowed to
cool the steam is condensed, leaving
a partial vacuum in the can, which
draws the ends on very tightly, at a
pressure of about twenty-five pounds
per square inch. This is sufficient
pressure so that the most violent ham
mering Of can on a plank, by hand
will not cause any of the seams to
open. The larger cans, holding about
two quarts, always show dented sides,
due to the vacuum inside and the air
pressure outside. This assures that
the goods are in perfect condition.
The waste in canning pineapples
formerly amounted to forty percent.
When the coring machine came into
use, some of this waste was elimina-
ted. Then when the machine which
trims the parings came into use, the
waste was further decreased, so that
it aggregates now but about thirty per
cent of the fruit harvested. This con-
sists partly of the spines, of which no
use can be made, and of such portions
of the flesh of the fruit as is contained
in the sinuOsites of the skin,