TABLE No. 2. Cost of Living in New Jersey-Comparison of Average Retail Prices, per Article, Month of June, for 1911 and 1912. TABLE No. 3. Cost of Living in New Jersey-Comparison of Average Retail Prices, The Fruit and Vegetable Canning Industry of New Jersey-Season of 1911. The data relating to the condition of the fruit and vegetable canning industry of New Jersey, as shown by the reports of operations of individual establishments during the packing season of 1911, is shown in every essential detail in the tables which follow. The industry is one of growing importance to both the manufacturing and the agricultural interests of our State, in that with regard to the first it has created a demand for certain factory products such as machinery of a certain type, glass jars, metal tops and tin cans, and regarding the second, which is the most important, it provides a reliable and profitable outlet for a wide range of farm and garden products, which, without its aid, if grown at all, might for want of a market be unavoidably allowed to perish where they were raised. The glass and metal working industries employ hundreds of skilled workmen in the production of such vessels and other material as the canning factories require, and the industry itself, during the packing season, provides work for a large number of persons in the vicinity of the canneries, who, without the opportunity thus afforded them for employment, would, many of them at least, be idle during the entire year. Some of the larger canning establishments in New Jersey have special departments fully equipped with appropriate machinery in which the supply of jars and cans required for their own pack is manufactured. In all such places employes of the mechanical departments are kept steadily employed throughout the year. Those employed directly in the operations of preparing and canning the goods are employed during the season only, which usually means from sixty to ninety days. The report on the canning industry, instead of being incorporated with "food products" in the annual statistics of manufactures, is presented in this form for the reason that it was found to be practically impossible to obtain from a large number of packers the data required for making the more elaborate report. The condition of the industry, as indicated by the report of packing operations for the season of 1911, is shown in the series of three tables which follow, the first giving 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 included in the presentation. On the second and third tables respectively, will be found the data showing the several varieties of fruits and vegetables included in the pack, with quantities of the same. In the following summary the totals of these three tables are given for 1911, in comparison with those of 1910, and such increases or decreases as have taken place are entered both in absolute amounts and by percentages. Comparison Showing Changes in Financial and other Conditions for the As shown by the above summary, there were 33 canneries large and small in operation in 1910, and 34 in 1911. The only element of the presentation showing a decrease in "capital invested," which is $21,840, or 2.5 per cent. less in 1911 than it was in 1910. In every other respect very large gains are shown. The number of persons employed is 15.5 per cent. greater; the total amount paid in wages shows an advance of 23.7 per cent.; the increase in the selling value of products is 25.8 per cent.; in the aggregate number of days in operation, 29.4 per cent., and in the average seasonal earnings of labor employed, 7.2 per cent. The table shows that the year 1911 was a very prosperous one for the canning industry, particularly in regard to the "total selling value of products" which surpassed that of the year previous by nearly one-half of a million dollars. The aggregate |