The delicate art of canning has gone ahead so fast
within Britain that our producers have not yet caught up with the demand. We talk of over-production and forget the examples of under-production. Asparagus is one of the vegetables demanded by canners in quantities far ahead of the supply. Nearly a generation ago a suggestive book, called The Transi- tion in Agriculture, was written suggesting that the energy of the British producer would be directed more and more to what we regard as garden rather than field crops. The author's prophecies have been too slowly fulfilled, but have been brought much nearer by the advance of the art of canning. The list of food so treated in England is very large indeed. Here is a wholly inadequate list of produce demanded by the canners : most soft fruits, especially loganberries, pears, plums, peas (both green and dried), beet, turnip, new potatoes, celery, spinach, dwarf beans, carrots, and cauliflower. This list, in which a few items will surprise many people, is being yearly enlarged ; and it is introducing a new art, in which many experiments are being made. If an intensive grower can find two, or perhaps three canning crops which can succeed one another immediately his fortune should be made. The canners desire to run their factory as continuously as possible, and the producer should make a like effort with his factory. This new " transition in agriculture " demands a certain imagination in the producer and a new effort in the man of science ; for the demands are entirely novel in certain respects. Of course, the French maraichers long ago perfected the art both of succession and of simultaneous sowings of different crops on the same plot ; but the canners have intro- duced new demands : they want particular varieties ; close co-operation between the farm and the factory has become essential. * * *
Previous page
