every section of this country and Canada. But his work was compared and checked against this book and made to correspond with it.

This Fourth Edition has been completely revised by the leading recognized authorities of the industry, and is accordingly as reliable as conditions can make it.

Realizing that an immense amount of good could be done by giving straightforward, practical instructions, such as could be readily understood by all and used in the process room actually, THE CANNING TRADE undertook the publication in serial form of this work. Its original intention was to start with each article in the selection of the seed, the preparation of the ground, the cultivation of the growing crops, the harvesting of the same and their removal to the factory. But so eager were our readers for the pith of the story-the actual working formula in the process room-that we had to forego the first part of this, and content ourselves with the contracting for the crops, their removal to the factory, and then take them step by step through the factory, until we had seen them safely and neatly labeled and boxed ready for shipment. This is what the packers wanted, and this is what we gave them.

Our original intention was merely to treat canned foods in all their varieties, but in giving these we aroused a great desire for information upon the making of Jams and Jellies, Preserves, Catsups, Soups, Meats and Fish, Flavoring Extracts, Salad Dressings, and the like, and so these were added to the list and will be found in this volume.

The readers of this book will find the formula given are practical, ready for use; they have all been tried and used repeatedly by men who have made a success of the business, and there is but one reservation goes with them: CONSIDERABLE COMMON SENSE MUST BE ADDED TO ALL FORMULA. By this we mean that it is absolutely impossible to give one set time of process for all conditions and locations; that every change of temperature, altitude, difference in soil or fertilizer, a wet or dry season, and a hundred and one other causes may have an effect upon the process, and so NO LARGE PACK OF GOODS SHOULD BE PUT UP UNTIL A TRIAL BATCH HAS FIRST BEEN MADE. And not only at the beginning of the season, but frequently during the pack, in order to detect any changes.

If used judiciously, in this manner, these formula will be found satisfactory, differing possibly with different processors, as is natural, but worthy the high approval set upon them when they were published in serial form and in the three editions since published. THE CANNING TRADE.

For list of Contents see back of book.

T

1

THE CANNING INDUSTRY

It is now a little more than one hundred years since the French Government made a practical effort to give to the world in general the results of its endeavors to find a better and more wholesome method of preserving foods in a manner as nearly fresh as possible; and it must be admitted by all that we owe the origin of the canned food business, as it is at present, to the wisdom of the French Government, and that the Government of the First Republic.

About the year 1795, that is to say right at the height of the reign of terror in France, the French Government offered a prize of 12,000 francs for the best method of preserving fruits, vegetables and other elementary articles without pickling or dessication. The French Minister of the Interior, M. Montalivet, acting on the report of the Board of Arts and Manufacturers, granted to M. Nicholas Appert the reward of 12,000 francs. This award was made in 1810. The according of the award required the recipient to furnish the Government with a true and faithful copy in book form of his methods in full, for the benefit of the world in general, and M. Appert complied with this requirement before obtaining the money.

Whilst this is a French invention and not an accidental discovery, the developments of it during the past century have tended to make it peculiarly an American industry and success. But it is true today that we have no men in our midst, nor in the best factories in the world, that we are aware of, who can do what Appert did with foods. One test of this matter is the prservation of eggs in a fresh condition. To keep eggs in hermetically sealed vessels, through the application of heat, is of so delicate a nature that it must be possible when eggs are taken out of the vessel to make an omelet of them, which proves that they are of their original nature. Even "limed" eggs will not do this. And yet Appert had the time and method by which it could be done.

M. Appert was excellently equipped in the experience of life to accomplish what he undertook, and there were probably fifty years of experience in his dealings with the various lines of foods with which it was necessary for him to be acquainted, before he made public his method. He was in turn a pickler, a preserver, a wine maker, and we believe a confectioner, during the long years of his application and work. During all this time he was very poor. Any money he got was expended in further experiments, and while he lived to be over 90 years of age, we believe he died in comparative poverty in spite of the award obtained from the French Government and his attention to work.

The French Chambers, however, after his death, recognized the vast utility of his invention to mankind in general, and virtually placed his name among famous men by creating his son a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor in recognition of his services, and the family hold that honorable position to-day in France. The French Government also ordered a life-sized bust to be made of him, and we believe that has an honorable place in the office of the Minister of the Interior.

But the development of a century virtually changed the utensils and broadened the methods of Appert under the extension of demand which came through American business; and a view of his simple utensils and process room, so to call it, would provoke a smile to-day.

We believe it was in 1810 that an English tin-plate worker took out a patent in England for a vessel of tin plate for use in the preservation of hermetically sealed foods, and we mention the fact here in connection with the previous greater fact, because to-day the canning industry is as much dependent upon the can, and, in fact, has taken its commercial name "canning" from it, as the can-making industry is dependent upon the hermetically sealing business.

Under the title "A History of the Canning Industry by Its Most Prominent Men" THE CANNING TRADE published in January, 1914, a splendid and comprehensive history of the origin and development of this business in all lines and in all sections. It should be read in connection with this brief reference.

One thing, however, we would like to emphasize here, and that is that the French carefulness in everything they do, especially in regard to foods, would add vastly to the excellence and reputation of American canned foods, if it were but generally practiced. This excellence, the results mainly of patience, operates from the selection of the seed, or even the growing of the seed, to the affixing of the brass label for high-class trade; and the Government at Paris recognizes not only the sanitary advantages of this method but the commercial advantages that result from it, and is so careful with regard to the honest efforts of the French canners that it appoints Boards of Inquiry to investigate charges against methods in the canneries before condemning them from mere newspaper accusation Thus in the matter of green peas, which is probably one of the largest of the French lines of canned foods, the investigating boards reported that a small amount of salts of copper was highly beneficial in a commercial sense and not injurious to the consumer; and under the French law packers are allowed to use a certain slight proportion of sulphate of copper upon green peas. It is this permission, not abused by the French packers, which gives to French peas the admitted superiority and pre-eminence they have throughout the world, and tends largely to continue the demand for French peas; but colored peas cannot now be imported, the United States Pure Food Law prohibiting their entry.

A MARKET.

As the particular object of this work is to keep to the essentially practical questions and the solution of them, without any regard to whether the reasoning herein shall be satisfactory to promoter, packer or distributor, we will first take a glance at what is probably the most important question the packer has to consider that is, where and how he will market his goods after he has put them up.

Now, the sale of canned foods, like everything else pertaining to the necessities of the human family, will depend upon the contiguity of the market; or, in other words, population. It might be necessary to stop here and consider the question of transportation costs of these goods; but it is very evident that the facilities of transportation in these modern days are, in America at any rate, in exact proportion to the extent of population. In other words, financial and stock matters always result in placing the means of transportation where there is population to justify the expense. The canning industry has therefore to thank the other lines of commerce and manufacture for this simplification of a great difficulty; but, in turn, this matter of established communication and transportation really governs the location of canning factories. There are, however, some peculiarities, geographical as well as commercial, in which the center of greatest population may be considered the governing factor. Thus the 39th degree of latitude is the median line of the westward progress of population in America, as demonstrated by recurring census for more than a century. Now this 39th degree of latitude runs about on a line of Baltimore, Indianapolis, Denver and somewhat north of Sacramento; in other words, through Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, North Missouri, the dividing line of Kansas and Nebraska, Northern Colorado, Utah, Nevada and Northern California. We mention these States in the order in which they lie from East to West, because the increase of population, or what is known as the center of greatest population, has moved westward contiguous to this line at the rate of an average of 40 miles each ten years; and in the last census (1910) was to be found about 4 miles southeast of the town of Unionville, Monroe county, Indiana, which is about 30 miles south of Indianapolis. It is advancing, therefore, directly into the State of Illinois at present, and now is considered as having reached there. Along this isothermic line this increase of population may be relied upon to continue, and the importance of this knowledge will be appreciated in respect to the canning industry, when it is understood that this is the identical line of what may be known as the center of the tomato-packing region. The market for canned tomatoes essentially lies with the greatest population. Railroad transportation will always follow the same course. Therefore, the two important facts of distribution

and consumption are to be found along this line of the 39th parallel.

A further consideration in this respect was made clear when the Government, under the necessities caused by the world war, took over the operation of the railroads. One of the first evident. alterations was an effort to stop cross-shipments, i. e., the shipment of Illinois coal, for instance, into Ohio, and of Ohio coal into Illinois; the object being to increase local consumption and to decrease transportation. This principle will, most certainly, be applied to canned foods to an even greater extent, under the new conditions following the termination of the war. And it is economically right that it should be so; there is no economy in shipping Indiana tomatoes to Maryland, and Maryland tomatoes to Indiana or Illinois. Local demand will be filled by locally packed canned foods, and it shoud be, and only the surplus be distributed, and then only to nearest points of shortage. This must result in better profits, and because the cost of goods will be lower, increase consumption.

TOMATOES.

Tomatoes are not, and never will be, a heavy Northern pack, becaues the season is too short to make them pleniful in production, and there is always danger of an abnormally early frost to destroy the vines in the middle of the season.

This marked condition would not prevail were it not that by keeping south of this line of the 39th degree, the reverse condition may be relied upon, and, therefore, it will not pay anyone to undertake to compete in northern latitude with tomato growers in a more congenial clime. It, therefore, follows that the man who wishes to be successful in packing tomatoes should consider these facts, but at the same time not overlook the corresponding important fact that to go below this line a great deal will take him into a section too far removed from population, too poorly equipped with transportation facilities, and, therefore, lacking the two first essentials in marketing his goods. This will show distinctly that a little consideration at least is necessary both to the would-be packer and the promoter in their intended operations; and a man must consider well and decide definitely as to whether he is going to make tomatoes the basis of his business to rely upon, or other staples.

CORN.

By, in what may be considered, a strange and fortunate coincidence, corn appears to occupy an entirely different position in this geographical situation to what the tomato crop does. While corn can be grown successfully in the fields from the parallel of 35 degrees to that of 45 degrees, it does better and produces a sweeter article