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The Canning Industry in New Jersey.

Season of 1909.

The canning of vegetables and fruits is carried on in New Jersey on a scale that, relative to the area of land under cultivation, is not surpassed, if it is equalled in any other of our States. The industry is of particular value as an adjunct to farming interests, inasmuch as it furnishes an outlet for large quantities of a wide range of produce which could not be as profitably marketed in natural form. Wherever established, canneries have given an impetus to farming and truck gardening that has converted waste lands into cultivated farms, and in the preparation and packing of products a few months' employment is provided each season for a large number of persons in the vicinity of the canneries, who, in the absence of such opportunities would be idle during the entire year.

Another advantage resulting from the canning factories is the development of a large trade in the manufacture of glass jars, tin cans, and other vessels used in packing, which now furnishes employment for some thousands of wage earners in factories and workshops.

Many New Jersey canneries handle both vegetables and fruits, and a number of the largest firms utilize the time between packing seasons to make their own cans, for which purpose they have shops equipped with appropriate machinery attached to their plants. In such establishments work is steady throughout the year for the largest part of the working force.

The condition of the industry as reported for 1909, with full particulars relating to the pack, is shown in the three tabies that follow. The first gives the amount of capital invested, number of persons employed, total amount paid in wages, number of days in active operation, and selling value of the pack, for each establishment. The second and third tables give respectively, the quantities of the several varieties of vegetables and fruits canned and marketed during the year. The following summary presents these conditions for 1909 in comparison with 1908, and shows also the increases and decreases that have taken place.

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The foregoing table shows that forty-three canneries were in operation both years. Capital invested in 1909 shows a falling off as compared with 1908, of $118,638, or 12.6 per cent.; the number of persons employed is practically the same for both years, the difference in favor of 1908 being only four. A large decrease —$40,374, or 9.3 per cent. is shown in the total amount paid in wages, and also in the aggregate number of days in operation, which is 780, or 21.9 per cent. less in 1909 than in 1908. The average yearly earnings of labor employed in the canning processes only, shows a falling off of 9.3 per cent., which corresponds exactly with the reduction in the number of persons employed. The only item in the table showing an increase, is the total selling value of products, which is $9,540, or 0.4 per cent. greater in 1909 than in 1908. The gain in total selling value is very small and probably reflects the consequences of a slight fluctuation in prices with an upward tendency.

Table No. I shows seventeen establishments owned and operated by corporations; ten establishments owned by private firms or partners, and sixteen by individual proprietors. The aggregate number of stockholders in all establishments under corporate management is 344, and the number of partners and individual owners is 42. The aggregate amount of capital invested in all the canneries is $817,116; the total number of persons employed during the year is 5,388, of which 2,173 are men and 3,215 women. The selling value of all products is $2,219,152; the total amount paid in wages is $390,860, and the aggregate number of days in operation is 2,786. The largest amount of capital invested $200,000, is shown by establishment No. 3, and the smallest $1,000, by No. 34. The average amount of capital invested per establishment is $19,003.

Table No. 2 shows quantities of the various fruits canned during the year, the figures appearing just as reported, in dozens of

one, two, and three pound cans, and also gallons. The data for each establishment are given separately, and the totals of each variety for all establishments appear on the bottom line.

The following summary tables show the fruit pack for 1909, in comparison with that of 1908; the contents of the several varieties of standard cans, are all reduced to a common basis of pounds so as to present the comparison in the simplest possible form. The increases and decreases are given in absolute amounts and also by percentages.

Comparison of Fruit Pack in 1908 and 1909.

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Eight varieties of fruit are shown on the above table for both years; of these only two-"blue berries" and gooseberries show an increase the first named so large that, although some of the fruit was put up in 1908, the pack of 1909 was so much greater as to leave the comparison without value; 1909 may be regarded as the first year that the handling of this particular fruit was seriously undertaken by the packers.

Of the six other varieties, two-blackberries and strawberries, show decreases of 13.8 per cent and 16.7 per cent respectively, while the shrinkage in the quantities canned of pears, cherries, pineapple, and raspberries ranges from 58.8 per cent to 75.2 per

cent.

The total quantity of fruit of all kinds reported in the pack of 1909, is 3,617,016 pounds, while that of 1908 was 6,158,396; the net decrease is therefore 2,541,380 pounds, or 41.3 per cent. Peaches, of which only a small quantity-996 pounds, was reported for 1908, have disappeared entirely from the pack of 1909. On the whole, notwithstanding the fact that higher prices were obtained for their products, the year 1909 was not a prosperous season for the fruit packers of New Jersey.

Table No. 3 shows the varieties and quantities of vegetable

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