XIII
PRESERVING ASPARAGUS
CANNING
he canning factory has made asparagus a vegetable for every day of the year instead of being a luxury for a few weeks, as was formerly the case. The canners have made it a farm crop instead of a garden product. To a great extent canning has transformed the farm into a garden, increasing the profits from every acre planted many fold. In many localities an acre of what was formerly considered a sandy waste is now yielding more than double the net profit of the best acre under cultivation in ordinary farm crops.
Eastern methods.—The pioneers in this industry on Long Island, N. Y., have been the Messrs. Hudson & Sons, who have extensive plants at Mattituck and Riverhead, each of them as complete as mechanical skill and enterprise can make them. Each plant consists of a storehouse, 50 x 150 feet; a packing-house, 40 x 125 feet; and a can manufactory, 25 x 60 feet. A steam-engine of ten horse-power is required for hoisting, pumping, and for generating gas for the soldering-heaters, and a boiler of one hundred horse-power to generate steam for sterilizing the asparagus. A perspective view of one of the plants is seen in Fig. 36.
