The Fruit and Vegetable Canning Industry of New Jersey-Pack of 1914.

Considering the area of land under cultivation for the production of vegetables and fruits used for canning purposes, the annual fruit and vegetable pack of New Jersey is not surpassed in volume elsewhere. The industry is an important aid to the agricultural interests of the State, in that it absorbs a wide assortment of farm and garden produce that might go to waste because of the difficulty of marketing them in their natural forms. Much land that would otherwise have remained idle has been brought under cultivation to supply material for the industry, thus increasing the demand for agricultural labor, and the packing operations in the canneries furnish employment to thousands of seasonal workers-mostly women, and to other thousands of skilled workmen who are steadily employed in the manufacture of the metal and glass vessels with their numerous accessories that are used in the industry.

Some of our largest canning establishments include in their pack both fruits and vegetables, and also manufacture their own jars, cans, packing cases and all other material required for carrying on their trade without being dependent on outside sources of supply. A good part of these plants are operated throughout the year in some of their departments, but the smaller ones, which are the most numerous, work only during the actual canning season, which is seldom longer than sixty days.

New Jersey ranks sixth among the states in the value of its canning products, the states ahead of it in that respect being in the order named, California, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

The final status of the industry and the variety of goods included in the pack of 1915 are shown in the series of tables which follow. The first of these tables presents a general summary of the business organization of the industry, showing the number of wage earners employed, the capital invested, total value of products, number of days in operation, etc. The second

and third tables present the varieties and quantities of vegetables and fruits which constituted the year's pack.

Preceding these tables is the summary below, which gives a comparison of the totals for the industry in 1914 compared with 1913. The increases and decreases are shown in absolute numbers, and also by percentages.

Comparison of Financial Statements for the Year 1913-1914.

As shown by the above table, 'there were 45 canneries in operation in 1913, and 46 in 1914. The capital invested shows a falling off of $63,141, or 6.0 per cent. in 1914, as compared with the next preceding year. The number of persons employed was greater by 23 in 1914 than in 1913, but the total amount paid in wages was $10,393, or 2.1 per cent. less.

The selling value of products was $2,507,344 in 1913, and $2,396,889 in 1914; the decrease in 1914 is, therefore, $110,455, or 4.4 per cent. The aggregate number of days in operation was greater by 87, or 2.7 per cent., in 1914 than the number reported for 1913, but the average earnings per employe for the season was $2.35, or 2.5 per cent. less. On the whole the diminished earnings of labor and reduction in selling value of the season's pack shows that the season was not up to the average prosperity of recent years.

Table No. 1, which sets forth the character of management, capital invested, etc., by establishments, shows that 23 of the 46 plants reporting are owned and managed by corporations having 418 stockholders, and 23 are under private ownership with one owner each. The total capital invested is $992,308, and the number of wage earners employed, seasonal and permanent, is 5,327, of which 2,073 are men, and 3,254 are women. The total amount

paid in wages is $484,486, and the total value of the season's pack is $2,396,889. The aggregate number of days in operation is 3,253. The average capital invested per establishment is $21,572, and the average value of products per establishment is $52,105.

Table No. 2 shows the varieties and quantity of each variety of fruit included in the season's pack. The items are entered as reported by the packers, in cans of standard measures. The figures are given separately for each of the canneries with the totals for all. The following summary gives the data relating to the fruit pack of 1914, in comparison with that of 1913, with the increases and decreases as the case may be, noted in absolute amounts and also by percentages. The contents of the several standard varieties of vessels are reduced to a common basis of "pounds" so as to present the comparison in the simplest possible form.

Comparison of Fruit Pack in 1913 and 1914.

As shown by the above table, the pack of fruits in 1914 exceeded that of the next preceding year by 4,754,496 pounds, or 351.9 per cent. The pack of 1913, compared with that of 1912, showed a falling off in the quantity of fruits handled almost equal to the increase in 1914; the yearly alternation of large and small fruit crops accounts fully for this biennial enlargement and curtailment of the fruit pack.

"Pears" remain, as usual, by far the most important article of the fruit pack, with 4,707,348 pounds to its credit; the next highest is "blackberries," 1,121,304 pounds of which are included in the cannery products of 1914.

11 STAT.

Table No. 3 gives details of the vegetable pack of 1914. The establishment reports are identified by "office numbers," four of which-Nos. 10, 12, 24 and 34, represent two or more canneries owned by the same firm, but situated in different localities. The ten lines of vegetables handled by the packers are shown on the table in dozens of standard sized cans. For the purpose of simplifying the comparison of the vegetable pack of 1914 with that of 1913, the contents of these cans are reduced to pounds in the table below.

Two articles-asparagus and tomato puree—which figure in the pack of 1913, are missing from the list of 1914, as shown on the above table. Only ten varieties of vegetables are reported for both years, and of these there are six reporting increases, and four decrease of products. In the matter of quantity "tomatoes" lead all other varieties. The total pack of 1913 was 83,700,300 pounds in 1913, of which tomatoes furnished 57,225,492 pounds. The pack of 1914 shows a grand total of 81,893,292 pounds, 47,123,664 of which consists of tomatoes. The decrease in the tomato pack is therefore 10,101,828 pounds, or 17.7 per cent. Next in importance among the vegetables is "lima beans," of which 11,029,968 pounds was included in the pack of 1913, and 10,747,272 in the pack of 1914. The falling off of this article is therefore 282,696 pounds, or 2.6 per cent. Tomato pulp shows the greatest numerical increase in quantity in 1914, compared

with 1913-4,177,164 pounds, and the second largest proportionate increase-122.3 per cent. The decrease of the total pack of 1914, compared with that of 1913, is 1,807,008 pounds, or 2.2 per cent.

The canning industry occupies a high place on the list of occupations which contribute to the security and well-being of the human race, in that its processes save from decay immense quantities of food which would otherwise be wasted, if grown at all, and preserve the same with unimpaired nutritive power for years, thus providing an immense stock of reserve food which stands as a protection against the famines which, before the development of preservative processes, were always sure to follow extensive crop failures.

The distribution of canneries by localities is as follows: Bridgeton, 6; Cedarville, 3; Vineland, 2; Williamstown, 2; Quinton, 2; Salem, 2; Woodstown, 2; Hancock's Bridge, 2; and one each in the following places: Egg Harbor City, Bordentown, South Dennis, Tuckahoe, Eldora, Cape May, Goshen, Deerfield, Fairton, Greenwich, Leesburg, Newport, Glassboro, Lambertville, Elmer, Allentown, Hopewell, Pennington, Freehold, Phalanx, Canton, Pedricktown, Norma, Pennsville and Yorketown.