Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor and Industry of New Jersey

time worked by employes was greater by 690 days, and the season's earnings show an increase of $6.14 per employe.

Table No. I shows that of the 34 establishments engaged in the industry, eighteen are controlled by corporations having 323 stockholders, and twelve are operated by individuals and partnerships with 17 persons as the total number interested. The capital invested per establishment ranges from the lowest, $2,000, to the highest, $346,800, and the total amount af capital invested in the entire industry, was $837,064. The total number of persons employed is 4,766, of which 1,915 are males and 2,851 females. The total amount paid in wages during the packing season was $437,933; the total selling value of the entire season's pack was $2,173,567, and the aggregate number of days in operation during the season was 3,039.

The number of persons employed in each establishment ranges from 11 to 625, and the value of products ranges from $2,825 in the smallest to $396,900 in the largest. The average number of days in operation was 89.3; the lowest number was 15 days and the highest, 275. Of the total number of persons employed in the industry, 40 per cent. are males, and 60 per cent. females. Table No. 2 shows the fruit pack of 1911; each variety of fruit is entered on the table in the several standard sizes of cans just as reported by the thirty-four establishments engaged in the business. In the table below the fruit pack of 1911 is compared with that of 1910. The contents of the several varieties of standard cans in which the material is packed are reduced to a common basis of pounds, so that the comparison may be presented in the simplest possible form. The increases and decreases are shown in absolute amounts, and also by percentages.

Comparison of Fruit Pack in 1910 and 1911.

Six varieties of fruits appeared in list of products for 1910, and seven for 1911. There are therefore only five articles the product of which can be compared for both years. The total quantity of all kinds of fruit included in the pack of 1910 was 5,786,074 pounds, as against 11,467,368 pounds in 1911. The increase is shown to be 5,681,294 pounds, or 98.2 per cent. Among the articles appearing in the pack of both years, "pears" shows by far the largest quantity handled, with 8,411,748 pounds for 1911; "blackberries" is a not very good second, with 1,689,096 pounds. The season of 1911 appears to have been one of the most prosperous experienced by fruit packers in New Jersey during many years back.

Table No. 3 shows all the vegetables and the quantity of each as reported in the pack of 1911. There are eleven varieties, and one by-product under the commercial name of "tomato pulp." The eleven varieties of vegetable products appearing on the table are entered just as reported in dozens of one, two and three pound cans, and also gallons. The totals of each variety are shown in the footings. The summary table below shows the entire vegetable pack of 1911, reduced like the fruits referred to above to the basis of pounds, which is placed in comparison with that of 1910, the increases and decreases being shown in absolute numbers and also by percentages.

Comparison of Vegetable Pack in 1910 and 1911.

The above comparison shows three varieties of goods that were not handled by the canneries in 1910. Comparisons can

therefore be made only with the nine articles reported for both years. Of the nine comparable varieties of vegetables, five show decreases, three of them quite large, and four show increases that are also for the most part large. The total quantity of all varieties of vegetables canned in 1911 is 57,521,688 pounds; in 1910, it was 50,397,312 pounds, showing an increase in the 1911 pack of 7,124,376 pounds, or 14.1 per cent. "Tomatoes," it will be observed, constitutes 63 per cent. of the entire season's pack. The quantity of these goods handled in 1911, was, as shown by the table, 36,229,332 pounds. The enormous quantity of vegetables handled by our canneries shows the importance of this great industry as a stimulus to farming, and a means of conserving the food supply of the nation. On the whole the showing for the industry in 1911 was very much better than that exhibited by the reports of 1910 and the two or three preceding years. It would seem from the much more rapid increase of urban compared with rural populations throughout all parts of the civilized world, that the importance and of course the profitableness of all processes of food preservation must inevitably show a steady growth.

THE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CANNING INDUSTRY OF NEW

JERSEY.

Character of Management, Capital Invested, Number of Persons Employed, Total Amount Paid in Wages, Selling Value of Product and Number of Days in Active Operation During the Year 1911.

TABLE No. 1.