Newspaper Page Text
r~ FART XI
■■■ --. -- AMD .:,
JO URN AL JUNIOR,
HOW CALIFORNIA FRUIT
IS PUT INTO CANS
Pretty Girls With Their Arms Immersed in the Clear
Syrupy Streams—-The Drying Process on the Hay
ward Farm—-Millions for the Orchardists.
Do you appreciate the artistic and ap
petizing possibilities of pretty young girls
of Latin type, their arms immersed elbow
deep in clear syrupy streams, their dim
pled brown hands pealing an apple, and
throwing the curling paring over the
s&oulder, as was dene in the days of our
witoh-fearing ancestors? If you care for
bright dresses and tendrils of hair softly
curling from fair, damp brows —If it please
you to think that your morning dish of
peaches is prepared by these clean young
girls and women, then visit a fruit can
nery in the height and rush of the season,
and fruit will always be sweeter to you.
Within electric car and easy bicycle ride
of San Francisco, in the orchard district
•toout Hayward3 are exemplified the
methods of preparing various fruits for
markets thousands of miles away. At
Haywards may be seen during the sum
mer months acres of fruit being canned
Tinder the spacious roofs that, shelter hun
dreds of -women, girls and men.
On opposite edges of the little town are
a typical fruit dryer and a fruit cannery.
For long hours every day in the summer
hundreds of persons find employment in
converting the freshly plucked fruit of the
surrounding orchards into the marketable
form In which It is to be transported in
ship-loads to European purchasers of
• "California fruits." To be Bure some of
these very California fruits come back to
America as jams and Jellies and' are sold
by retail grocers in little packages at
fancy prices, the labels shoeing that they
are the real Imported thing and conse
quently worth the price demanded, a price
made necessary by the double duty the
fruit has had to bear. Some day Ameri
cans will learn to buy home products, but,
until they do, English packers will make
money by returning fruit under an alias.
The Aprleot Harvest.
At the fruit-drying concern, a type of
many small one* in that orchard valley,
about 200 persons are at work. Possibly
100 of them are -women and girls, thirty
boys, thirty Caucasian men and thirty
Japanese. There are no Chinese, and some
Of the boys and girls are little tots. The
■ ■■.■;
BSBlli S^l^lr FIRST INDEPENDENCE DAY OF THF 20th CENTURY WILL
m l|* ,BE CELEBRATED ON AMERICAN SOIL HALF WAY
J-- AROUND THE GLOBE.
Strange people, in remote and widely
separated places will witness the cele
bration of Independence Day, on the first
Fourth of July of the Twentieth century.
The message which rang out from the old
Liberty Bell above the little red brick
hall in Philadelphia one hundred and
twenty-five years ago, has traveled swift |
and far in these last three years, until
now it has extended half way around the
world.
It will be repeated and indorsed, at this
anniversary, by Americans living on
American soil which is eternally bound in
the Arctic ice. It v/iil be read to Ameri
cans whose home is 900 miles south of the
equator. While the rockets and Roman
candles are closing the day in Maine, the
morning sun will be lighting the folds of
the st^rs and stripes in the western con
fines of the republic. On the shores of
the China sea the cannon of our navy will
Snapshots of the Recent Chippewa Celebrations at \A/hite Earth,
\ ' ' - ] *..l ' '■■j, ' ' » ■■- . , - ' ;
BIKCH BARK WIGWAMS AND CKIPPEWA FULL BLOODS.
THE MINNEAPOLIS JOURNAL)
pay of all the cutters is S and 10 cents a
box for cutting open and pitting apricots.
A tot can cut but two or three boxes a
day, while an expert can do as many aa
twenty-two boxes. As these boxes con
tain about seventy pounds of fruit, or
something like 300 apricots, it will be
understood that the cutter must hustle to
open and pit and spread on trays a total
of more than 6,000 apricots.
Orchards surround this particular dryer.
The ground under the trees has been
smoothed by a clod roller. Men gently
jar the trees and then pick up the ripe
apricots from the soft earth, putting them
into boxes. These boxes are piled on
open light wagons, which patrol up and
down the rows, while wagon loads are
hurried over to the dryer, stopped before
an elevated porch and transferred to
scales. A clerk weighs and receipts for
A TTPICA L CANNERY.
fire the salute to the union, and little
brown Americans will doubtless hear the
roar with terror, fleeing to the woods of
Palawan.
Black, brown, red, yellow and white
are the skins of the people of the United
States. They live as far north as human
bsinge may exist, and they live naked
under the equator's fierce suns. Wherever
the flag has gone the national holiday will
be celebrated in some fashion, and the
work will begin of instructing our new
subjects in its meaning.
The Mont Remote.
As nearly as can be predicted the most
remote celebration of the Fourth on
American soil will be at Palawan. This is
the most western station in the Philip
pine archipelago, at which it is expected
at the navy department' that a ship will
be found on that day. It is safe to say
the consignment, then the boxes are
passed out a Bide door, loaded on small
cars and trundled along to the awning
sheltered open air cutting tables at which
sit rows ot women, girls, boys and men,
operating with a short wooden-handled
knife, each operator having a drying tray
on the table upon which to put the cut
fruit, cut side up. As each box is finished
the cutter hurries with it to the clerk and
WHERE THE 'WORKERS LIVE.
is credited with a punch In the record
card. Other men work the little car up
and down between the aisles of tables and
load it high with the shallow trays of cut
fruit. Then they shove the load down,
whirl It around, open a door and wheel it
gently into one of a row of dark closets,
from the cracks of which issue pale clouds
of yellow smoke. These stuffy closets are
the sulphur houses, in which the freshly
cut fruit remains for one, two, sometimes
that the natives of Palawan have no clear
idea of the origin or import of the Ameri
can feast, and the bellowing of the sa
luting cannon will doubtless be the first
notice to the majority of the people of the
island that they are due for a little cele
brating.
The Most Northerly.
The most northerly celebration will un
questionably be at Point Barrow, Alaska,
where Commander Harry Knox will have
arrived with the Concord. This is seven
ty-two degrees north latitude, and only
about a thousand miles from the pole. Th«
government maintains a signal station
there, and at rare intervals sends one of
its stanchest sea-going tugs to pay its
brief visit. The country is snow and ice
bound, and it is with difficulty that life
can be maintained. On the Fourth of July
the sun will be circling a short distance
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MISH-A-KEE-GEE-ZHIK. A RACE RIVER CHIEF.
SATUKDAY EVENING, «HJNE 29, 1901.
three hours. The fumes from five pounds
of pure California sulphur, burned in
holes in the earth floor, will bleach a ton
o? fruit and give it that pale, yellowish
or reddish tone preferred by buyers.
Without the sulphur, most fruit turns a
dark brown or mahogany as it dries.
From the sulphuring process the tray load
is drawn out and trundled along little car
tracks into the adjacent drying field,
some three acres being devoted to drying
grounds.
For three, four or five days the fruit re- J
mains in the shallow trays shriveling
under the sun's rays, the moisture
at night preventing it from hard
ening to the tenacity of sole leather.
The process goes gradually on until the
cure is perfect. Once during the interval
the fruit is scraped loose from the trays
and turned over to prevent the honeyed
Juices from glueing the fruit to the
smooth, thin board bottoms. The next
step is the collection of the trays, the
fruit being put in clean white sacks.
From this particular dryer the- sacks are
shipped immediately to a packing concern
in San Jose, where the dried fruit is as
sorted for size and boxed. The whole
process from orchard to freight car for
shipment to Europe requires but ten days.
The fresh fruit delivered to the dryer by
the orchardist brings $15 a ton. Five
pounds of green apricots make one pound
of dried. Dried and sold at wholesale,
the fruit brings about 6 cents a pound.
Retailed in distant markets it brings from
8 to 10 cents a pound. Apricot trees be
gin to bear at about 4 years of age and
continue no one knows how long, pro
vided good care be taken of them, proper
pruning and trimming being necessary.
The apricot is at its best in California.
On the Wolfskill ranch, near the town of
Winters, are three apricot trees believed
to be 60 years of age. They measure
nearly two feet in diameter near the
ground and are still good producers. But
most of the California apricot orchards
are from 10 to 15 years old. In a good
season apricot trees will produce thirty
five tons, or $525 worth of fruit to the
acre.
This one Harvard's dryer in
tends to handle from neighborhood or
chards this season about 300 tnos of apri
cots, 100 tons of plains, 250 tons of pears,
one crop succeeding another in the order
given. It pays better to dry fruit than to
sell it fresh to canners. The same meth
ods of preparation hold for all the fruits
named.*
The big fruit cannery at Haywards is
a picturesque colony of 600 women and
girls and about 200 men. There is not a
Chinese in or about the institution. The
superintendent, who has been managing
fruit canneries for twenty years, declares
emphatically that he would not have a
Chinese if he could get white labor. He
maintains that one Intelligent white op
erative can accomplish in the long run
nearly twice as much work, and do it
more satisfactorily and neatly, than two
Chinese. The result Is that this concern
gives employment to 600 women and girls.
They come from all over Alameda county,
from near-by cities and from distant
places. It is a summer-time novelty, a
sort of vacation for young women who
have had to engage in other employments
in the city. The work is ia the free coun
try air, the pay is from $1.25 to as high
as $2.50 a day, according to the skill and
speed of the individual.
Close to the big cannery are four long
rows of quaint little frame buildings,
looking like four unwheeled trains of old
box ca rs standing on parallel tracks.
These ~ude things, with their peculiar
streets nd monotonously similar doors
and smt I, square windows, are the cot
tages wi->re dwell the women and girls,
and near them are tents and a few de
tached extra buildings. These cottages
are partitioned off into rooms that are
12x16 feet, each one having a door and a
window. If three girls take a cottage
they get it for $3 a mouth. Provided they
remain at the cannery all season, the sea
son being from late in May until late in
October, they get their money back, so
that the lodging costs them nothing. They
get their meals at the boarding-house.
During the season the women and girls
make from $40 to $85 a month for the five
months. Then they may go back to their
country homes or to their city work, fairly
well paid for their time at the cannery.
The fruit comes to the cannery in wagon
loads, fresh picked from the orchards.
It is weighed in boxes, dumped out, as
sorted for size and appearance, reboxed
and trund-sd in to the row 3 and rows of
seated cutters. It is cut open and peeled
by hand and put in pans in front of the
operator. " The filled pans are gathered
up by men and taken over to the middle
of the great barnlike room. There It is
dumped by the packers into wooden
troughs in tables at which they work,
these shallow troughs being flooded with
fresh running water to cleanse the pieces.
above the horizon; but the crew of the
Concord will not be troubled with the
heat. The man who hoists the flag will
be wrapped to the eyes in heavy furs, and
if the cabin boy decides to set off any fire
crackers he will have to wear warm mit
tens. The special dinner served out to
the men in honor of the day will consist
largely of hot soups and canned vegetables
and will be consumed in the company of
red-hot stoves.
While this is taking place there will be
another celebration —still on American
soil—of a very different character. In
the island of Tutuila, In the Samoan
group, there will be a repetition of the
celebration held April 17, when the Amer
ican flag was formally raised there. Tu
tuila is 15 degrees south of the equator,
and is the southernmost American posses
sion. Captain B. F. Tilly, who is gov
ernor, believes in teaching the natives to
reverence American customs and institu
tions. In addition to dressing ship and
firing twenty-one guns from the Ameri
can man-of-war in the harbor of Pago
Pago, Captain Tilly will give shore leave
to his men and invite the Samoans to
join In the'games, feast 3 and general Ju
bilation. There will be boat races, bob
bing for apples in tubs of water, catch
ing the greased pig, hurdle and running
races, swimming and general athletics.
The most eastern celebration will be in
the island of Porto Rico. The Fourth will
dawn here just twelve hours ahead of the
day in the island of Luzon. The twen
tieth parallel of latitude, which passes
through Porto Rico, runs just one degree
north of the island of Luzon; and the dis
tance between the two points Is 180 de
grees, or half the circumference of the
earth; In many towns of Porto Rico there
The Bis Cannery.
The Most Eastern.
WHB WAR DANCE ON JUNE 14
'i4*!i 111 IB
9 I K9 I ;: ■' X]!: --'i lit:
PASTING LABELS.
From this floating supply the girls take
pieces with dextrous rapidity and place
them in fruit cans. Each of the ordinary
cans is filled until it weighs full twenty
six ounces on the scales standing before
each girl. Then it is quickly stamped
with a rubber type dangling from the girl's
belt and is placed on a tray on a rack
above the table. Men operating small
cars gather up these trays of filled cans,
taking them to the farther end of the great
room. There the cans in groups of a doz
en are placed in a metallic square frame
and shoved under a machine that sends
warm, water-clear sugar syrup into each
until it is full. That liquid completes the
standard weight. Tops are then adjusted
to the cans; a man calls out the brand and
grade; a clerk repeats and records it.
Then, through a low doorway, the cans
are shoved on cars to the soldering room,
where a group of men with plumbers'
irons and small blast furnaces run the
groove flush with solder in a twinkling
and pass the groups of cans on to the men
who slide them into the cooking machine.
Through that they pass slowly on a mov
ing metallic plane to come out at the other
side, after being subjected to boiling water
from one to three minutes. As they come
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are former residents of the United States,
and the day will not pass unnoticed even
in the remote sections. From the palace
of the governor general in San Juan will
float the stars and stripes, and wherever
there is a postofflce or a public school
house, the colors will be displayed and
the natives will be apprised by fireworks
and shooting that the day is one to be re
membered.
in Manila.
In the city of Manila the Fourth has
twice been celebrated. Naval officers
who were with Dewey's fleet remember
well the first celebration. It came two
months after the famous victory at that
critical time when the ships of Germany,
England and the other European powers
were crowding one another in the bay,
and when it seemed even to the coolest
Americans that a clash with Germany
was inevitable. That night the English
men-of-war dressed ship with thousands
of electric lights, and drawing away from
the other vessels took their place close to
the American fleet. The other nations had
not paid any particular attention to the
notice which it is the custom to send to
other ships in a harbor informing them
that the day is a national holiday; and the
special attention of the (British was ac
cepted as an assurance that if trouble
came they would be with us. Since that
evening, therefore, the American officers
and men who were present, and who real
ized the full meaning of the incident, have
cherished a warmer feeling for "our Brit
ish cousins."
The celabration of Independence Day in
•Manila a year ago was nfarked by meet
ings in the local theaters and halls, patri
otic speeches in English, Spanish and the
Tagal languages, band concerts, bunting
and other festivities. It is planned this
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out other solderers stand ready and are
kept very busy touching the little air
holes with solder.
From the cooking machine the hot cans
are whisked round on roller tables to the
spraying Jets, where they are cooled.
Then they are dumped out of their iron
forms, thrust uaon cars and moved on
■ into the big warehouse, where they are
piled high, the different grades in ssp
arate tiers. All about in the avenues
are isolated tables, at each of which two
girls are busy labeling the cpns with the
fancifully colored covers peculiar to tinned
fruits. They know by the little black
stamped letters on each can just what it
contains and by the number on top just
which girl packed the can. With small
paste brush and thick rolls of labels the
girls work away very rapidly. They are
paid 75 cents for every 100 cases of cans
labeled, and some of them can label 401
cases, of a dozen cans each, in a day.
This means $3. This particular cannery
turns out 125,000 cases of fruit in a sea
son.
Connected with the Haywards cannery
is a box factory, and, more interesting
than that, a can factory, which makes
thirty-five cans a minute, or 15,000 cans
PEELINGL
year to train a chorus of native children
to sing the "Star Spangled Banner,"
"The Red, White and Blue," and other na
tional songs. The Declaration of Indepen
dence will be read in the schools in dif
ferent tongues, and on the Luneta the
Salute to the Union will be fired.
An idea of the preparation for celebrat
ing in other ways may be had from the
following extract printed in the Manila
Times a year ago. It shows a willing
spirit but suggests a -weakness in the use
of English.
This popular hotel Is handsomely and taste
fully decorated, lanterns, flags and gruning,
(native term) being much in evidence. A
profuse dinner has been prepared and no
expense spared to make the day a thorough
success in every way, and visitors will be
sure of finding a furletan (Q) meal in the
cooliest dining-room in tours. The two boys
at the bar are fully prepared to do Justice
to all visitors. They have prepared a new
punch which is warranted to send a man
home sober after an untold number of glass 23.
As for M'King, if he has fully borne out our
prophecy that he would be a success in every
way and all who have tested his ability and
courtesy are pretty sure, if circumstances per
mit to turn up during the day and drink to
its glories.
The Princeton 'will be stationed at the
island of Cebu on July 4, and Its cannon
will remind the natives that they are citi
zens of a free republic. The war depart
ment expects to have one of the "tinclads"
not far from the courts of the Sultan of
Sulu, and the officers will inform his maj
esty that the day is a holiday for all
Americans, and that they would appreciate
the favor if he would fly the flag on his
palace and harem.
In the distant and lonesome island of
Guam there will be plenty of celebration.
J PARTI ix
MM*
JOURNAL JUNIOB,
CANNING APRICOTS.
a day. The output of this canery is 15,000
gallons of canned fruit a day. From or
chard to box car, the whole process can
be completed in less than two hours. Some
thirty-flve barrels of white sugar are used
each day in making syrup.
England the Best Market.
(England is the chief market center for
ese fruit shipments, but all the coun
ies of Europe, the continent of Australia
Ld many cities of the Orient receive reg
ar and increasing quantities of the dried
id canned orchard products of that state.
The tremendous amount of California's
uit crops cannot be comprehended by
mere figures. Already the growing in
dustry brings about $15,000,000 a year to
the orchardists. It means other millions
divided among the packers and shippers.
Fruit drying and fruit canning are con
ducted on a gigantic scale in California.
The season includes the months of June,
July, August, September and October, one
kind of fruit succeeding another, so that
nearly five months are devoted to han
dling in successsion cherries, strawberries,
raspberries, green gage plums, apricot*,
peaches, egg plums, pears, late peaches,
tomatoes and other fruits and. vegetable*.
Following the example of Captain Leafy*
his suoeeeaor, Captain Se&ton Schroeda%
will Issue a few ringing manifestoes. TIM
natives will be told that the day marks th«
birth of the nation, of which they are no»r
a part, and that it is their duty and prlvl
lego to set off firecrackers, shoot piatols,
burn pin wheels and have as good a time a*
possible, all the while remembering why
they do it, and being careful not to burn
their fingers. The natives will be supplied
with translations of the Declaration of
Independence, and will be urged to partici
pate in games and festivities.
In Cuba there are 6,000 American sol
diers who will do a little celebrating, even
though the Cubans do not regard the day
aa an occasion for unmitigated joyouanew.
Pine island, south of Cuba, is not conceded
to the Cubans, and may be regarded as
.part of the United States. There is a mil
itary reservation there where the day will
be appropriately noted. In the Hawaiian
islands the day will ba celebrated much as
it is in the United States. In addition to
the naval stations, there are plenty of
former residents of the states who have
gone to the islands to live. Also there ar«
plenty of crackers in the Chinese shopa,
not to mention pinwheels, "nigger-cha*
ers," skyrockets and torpedoes.
The Lonesoniest of All.
The lonesomest spot in the Uncle Sam'§
broadening domains is Wake island. It
sticks up in the Pacific about half way
between Hawaii and the Philippine archi
pelago. It has not even the company of
other islands. The United States acquired
it, and made it a naval station; and her*
in the middle of the Pacific, the union will 1
be saluted and the flag will fly, 2,000 mile«
from the nearest of its starred and striped
fellows.
IN FULL REGALIA.
