Chapter Five:
The Decline of the Canning Industry

Evan Howard

When visiting your local supermarket to buy vegetables you are given a few choices. These choices include buying fresh vegetables shipped to you in only a day to guarantee freshness, buying vegetables that remain fresh by being kept frozen, or buying vegetables that are preserved in a can. As a consumer you have to ask yourself a few questions.  Am I buying vegetables for tonight’s meal, a meal in a week, or a meal months away? The vegetables that are not frozen or canned have been shipped to your local supermarket so the consumer can enjoy the freshest vegetable possible. The next best option is to buy the frozen vegetables. In this day the only reason to buy canned vegetables is to prepare for a crisis situation, such as a horrible storm that knocks out your electricity. When I go shopping, along with the majority of the shoppers in the store, I buy enough food to have meals for the entire week. By buying frozen vegetables I can have them stored away in my freezer for a week or two while they still remain fresh. It gives you the flexibility and freedom to choose what vegetable you are going to have with your meal rather than having to eat the vegetable that is the closest to becoming rotten.  Believe it or not, these simple choices have played a major factor in the decline of the canning industry in Wicomico County. The canning industry was in decline for a number of years due to a myriad of factors. A demand of frozen foods has led to a decline in canned foods. Tougher competitions from larger and wealthier states have forced canneries to close down. Due to the tougher competitions farmers were forced to change their crop base from canning crops to feed crops.

The Delmarva Canning Industry in Its Prime

John H. Dulany owned a cannery in Fruitland, Maryland. The company’s name was John H. Dulany and Son. It was the biggest cannery in Wicomico County. On September 9, 1934 John H. Dulany’s son, Ralph O. Dulany, was appointed chairman of the National code authority for the canning industry. He was given supervision over the NRA code affecting that industry throughout the country. Mr. Dulany was the member of the code authority directly representing New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia, which states produce much canned goods[i].  In Chicago on January 23, 1937 Ralph O. Dulany of Fruitland was elected the president of the National Canners Association[ii]. If a man from Wicomico County is elected the president of the whole National Canners Association it shows you how big Wicomico County was in the canning industry at one point.

In 1920 the Federal Reserve Board considered the canning industry to be an “essential industry”[iii]. The National Canners Association told the Federal Reserve Board they will need at least $300,000,000 to finance the canning of the present crops[iv]. Figures from the 1941 United States Bureau of Census show that there were 260 canneries in the state of Maryland during that year[v]. In the year of 1944 21,524 workers were needed to harvest and pack the crops produced entirely on the Eastern Shore of Maryland[vi]. On August 22, 1944 hundreds of volunteer workers turned out in Maryland to help canneries that were hard pressed for labor to process the tomato crop. Twenty-five Salisbury business man closes their offices Monday to help with the packing in the plant of John H. Dulany & Son at Fruitland[vii]. An additional 100 men, woman, and child reported for the night shift. Workers from North Carolina were also asked to report to the plan to lend a hand[viii]. In 1953 the canning industry became the state of Maryland’s third largest industry. It was considered a 75 million-dollar-a-year industry and packs about 460 million cans of food a year[ix]. In 1953 the little state of Maryland was producing half the amount of canned food that the entire country of Russia was producing. You may ask yourself how can such a dominant factor come to an end? The canning industry in Wicomico County did not decline over night nor did it happen over a few years. It happened over several years and there were several factors that related to one another that influenced the decline.

Technological Advances

Two technological advances that influenced the decline of the canning industry included the invention of the freezer and the mechanical harvester. Prior to the mid-twentieth century the only way to refrigerate food was to use snow or ice from the outdoors. The only reliable way to keep food fresh was to can it. Thanks to pioneers in refrigeration such as Dr. William Cullen, Michael Farady, and Dr. John Goorie, we now have another way to keep food fresh. During the 1920’s and the 1930’s consumers were introduced to freezers. Mass production of refrigerators did not begin until after War World II. During the 1940’s usage of frozen food storage became more popular. Refrigeration technology really took off when innovations such as automatic defrost and automatic ice makers first appeared in the 1950’s and 60’s[x].  These advances took part in starting the decline of the industry. The severity of the decline came in the 70’s when almost all of Americans were well equipped with a refrigerator in their homes.

As freezers became more popular, people began eating more frozen food then they did canned food. The most important factor going into eating food is the taste of it. In many people’s opinion eating frozen vegetables tastes better then canned vegetables. The major reason for this is because frozen food is fresher then canned food. The only way you could get anything green in the Northern U.S. in the winter before the mid twentieth century was out of a can. With the invention of the freezer that all changed. In a 1960 article from The Washington Post entitled “Do Freezers Save Time or Money?” Mrs. D.M.H says, “With a freezer, I purchase fresh vegetables and fruit by the bushel rather than the can.”[xi] Consumers were no longer forced to buy canned foods to avoid rot.

In addition to being an easy way to buy fresh food, frozen food was also cheaper then canned food. The following chart was put together by the New York City Department of Markets. It found the average prices of fresh, frozen, and canned vegetables on January 1, 1952.

You would think that buying the fresher product would cost more money. This is a true statement when comparing the fresh produce to the frozen produce. This is not the case when comparing frozen vegetables to canned vegetables. So not only were frozen vegetables fresher than canned vegetables but some were actually cheaper as well.

            In addition to freezers, other technological innovations were affecting Wicomico County canners. The Tiller, a journal put out by The WM. B. Tilghman Company  from Salisbury, Maryland, mentioned the negative effect of mechanical harvesters on Delmarva canneries. The September, 1959, issue of The Tiller Journal says, “ A number of canning houses on the Delmarva Peninsula have closed during the past several years for various reasons. Some find it unprofitable to run because new machinery might not pay for itself”[xii]. The new machinery that they are taking about is the mechanical harvester.

A mechanical harvester is a farm machine that gathers a food crop from the fields. With the use of the mechanical harvester you can pack up to 120 cartons of produce in one minute. Vegetables like peas can be graded for tenderness. Mechanical jaws cut through the sample to measure the force required. The more tender the pea is the less pressure is needed.

Before 1958 mechanical harvesting of vegetables, especially tomatoes, was considered to be well outside the realm of feasibility. The reason for this is because it was considered too rough on the crops. It was thought that the mechanical harvester would ruin tomatoes and rip up corn. In the year 1958 it became a reality. Michigan State University developed a mechanical harvester that reduced tomato harvesting costs by as much as 55%. Also in 1958 the first large scale field testing of the mechanical harvester was highly successful in Florida and was used the following year in California[xiii]. The reason it became highly successful in these states was due to the fact of the acreage of farm land the farmers were working with. Compared to Maryland’s farms California and Florida’s land is enormous. Maryland farms are much smaller so for a farmer to buy such an expensive machine for little farm land did not make sense. Whereas in California and Florida they had such large farms that using a mechanical harvester to help harvest the crops was extremely convenient and since they had such a large land they had the money to make it affordable.

Tougher Competition

Tougher Competition came from states that had better weather therefore could produce several crops year round. The tougher competition had larger farms so they could afford the expensive machinery. They also had better labor supply along with a better product due to government help.

The Continental Can CO., INC., built a plant in Jacksonville, Florida in 1930. The canning of fruit and vegetables grew rapidly in this territory starting in the 30’s. The Jacksonville plant gave better service, quicker deliveries and resulted in economies[xiv].  In 1937 Ralph O. Dulany, who was head of John H. Dulany & Son Company, expanded the freezing-of-foods industry through establishment of a new plant in Jacksonville, Florida[xv]. This shows that in the 1930’s Florida’s agriculture industry was growing while competing with states such as Maryland.  J.K. Armsby, chairman of the board of the California Packing Corporation, stated that the canning industry of California grew from a pack of 7,000 cases of fruit and vegetables in 1863 to an annual pack of 20,000,000 in 1921[xvi]. This shows you that states such as California and Florida were on the rise. With the invention of the mechanical harvester, the states with it became extremely more advanced then the states without it when it came to canning crops. With the invention and usage of the mechanical harvester cartons of vegetables can fill up at a rate of 120 cartons a minute[xvii]. For this reason Florida and California were leading the field in production. The factory worker can produce more per hour while the farmer spent less money for off-grade[xviii]. According to former cannery worker Clifford Bock, “The canning season in Wicomico County only lasted four months- July to October”[xix]. He then went on to talk about how during the decline of the canneries in the 70’s the Eastern Shore had a huge migrant work force that consisted of Mexicans and Haitians. The farmers would house the migrant workers in little houses. They worked both on the fields and in the canneries. At the end of the season the workers would move on to try to find new jobs. The farmer would then need to find new employees to work for him in the fields and canneries the following season. Prior to the 70’s the migrant work force in Wicomico County consisted of Jamaicans[xx].  The 1956 December issue of The Tiller Journal talks about a sweet potato farmer’s trouble keeping staff:

The limiting factor in the increased production of sweet potato growing is the lack of dependable labor. It’s Impossible, they say to go into town and pick up labor off the streets. Instead they rely on the labor of the Jamaicans, who each year live in the houses furnished by Williams near their sweet potato fields. In this way they can supervise the Jamaicans, more closely and have the labor when its needed. The Williams made plans early in the year for this labor, for without it they would face some serious problems with such a large acreage.[xxi]

California also has a large immigrant work force. It is much larger then Wicomico County. California does not have as much trouble as Wicomico County though in keeping staff. The main reason for this is because California’s growing season lasts year round. They do not have to worry about going out and trying to find new workers to help them field and can their crop every summer.

The quality of tomato in Wicomico County was not as high as the quality of the tomato in California. For this reason more raw materials were able to be placed in the can compared to the amount of raw materials from the cans in Wicomico County. Compared to Wicomico County’s tomatoes; California’s tomatoes had less cracks, bad spots, and trimming off of culls. Due to his fact the California canneries had better variety of tomatoes which created less waste. A major reason California was producing a superior crop was due to government involvement. In 1985 the Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC) released a report on the Central Valley Project. In the book Cadillac Desert, written by Marc Reisner, it talks about the report on the Central Valley Project. In the report it talked about how the government sold extremely cheap water to the farmers. It was so cheap that the government was basically giving the water to the farmers for free. What was supposed to be $97 per acre-foot was sold for between $7.50 and $11.80[xxii]. The biggest subsidies were going to the Westlands Water District which is where the biggest farmers in the CVP service area lived. In the book it says, “So the same subsidies that were helping enrich some of the wealthiest farmers in the nation were at the same time depressing crop prices elsewhere”[xxiii]. This elsewhere included Wicomico County.

With a yearly employee staff, the ability to produce the product year round, and a higher quality of production and product he California cannery was able to increase its market. The biggest reason it could increase its market area though was due to the overall improvement in transportation.

Improvement in Transportation

Forty-three percent of the nation’s retail food business which included vegetables were done by supermarkets in 1952. In 1960 the percentage went up to seventy. Due to this, the distribution was no longer made through the terminal market. The terminal market once acted as the supermarket. Large cities such as New York and Philadelphia would bring in all types of produce such as fruits, vegetables, bread, and milk to name a few. They will sell them in large market areas to people from all over the surrounding states. It’s where consumers went to buy there weekly food supply.  An increase need of volume along with a consistent supply from a dependable source then arose. As a result of this, production developed rapidly into large scale areas of national production such as Texas, California, and Florida.[xxiv]

Modern transportation brought distant production areas to market in hours instead of what previously took days[xxv]. Air travel revolutionized national and global transportation by reducing the time needed to travel great distances. For domestic transportation, the improvement in interstate highways and road vehicles helped to get fresh vegetables transported out of states that could produce food year round and remain fresh by the time the consumer in faraway cities receive it. The US highway system shaped the nation by allowing easy access through standardized routes to all parts of the nation. The improvement in roads and highways helped decrease the time it took to travel from one state to another. Improvement in transportation systems included the refrigerated vehicle. Truck-based mechanical refrigeration systems were built to help keep the produce fresh while traveling long distances.

Change of Crop

            In 1961 President Kennedy signed the bill to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act. This act affected packing costs of canning crops and directs the Secretary of Labor to study the exemptions for the handling and processing of agricultural commodities[xxvi].  When someone buys a canned food product they are not only buying the food but are also paying for the can as well as the labor.[xxvii]

During the 1960’s and 70’s many farmers in Wicomico County had a lot of questions running through their minds. First off, the invention of new machinery such as the harvester crop made it easier for large scale farmers to mass produce and field the crop. It also made it easier for the farmer to can the crop. The farmers either had to spend a lot of money they did not have to compete against the farmers with the new machinery or try to come up with another plan. Another problem they were facing was trying to find workers year in and year out for them to help harvest and can their crops. In an article from the 1950 New York Times it talks about how frozen food sales were growing steadily and increase by 5% in 5 years[xxviii]. The demand for canned food was declining as the demand for frozen vegetables were increasing. As a farmer this had to be bothering you when you are thinking of a long term business in cannery. Also, other powerful and wealthy states, such as California, were increasing their market area while being able to produce the product year round. If I was a farmer at this time I would be worried. I obviously have to think of a plan so I can be able to get a steady income to support my wife and kids.

Prior to the 1960’s and on to the mid 60’s, crop production that went into cans consisted of peas, string beans, tomatoes, corn, pickles, and sweet potatoes. Long before the canning industry began to decline, the broiler and chicken hatchery industry was growing[xxix]. In the 70’s and beyond the poultry industry grew to an enormous stature. Due to the great success that businesses such as Perdue encountered, farmers decided to change their crop base to support poultry industry. Farmers switched their crops from canned foods to corn and soy beans- which are chicken feed- to earn a steady income. As a result, canners didn’t have a ready supply of vegetables and it was inefficient to ship in the product from off the Eastern Shore[xxx].

There was not one main reason for the decline of the canning industry. Several factors that linked together helped cause the decline. The largest impact was the invention of the refrigerator. As soon as refrigerators became popular the demand for frozen foods increased leading to a decline in canned foods. Frozen food was much fresher making the frozen foods taste a lot better then the canned food. On April 6 1943 six canneries in the Maryland-Delaware vegetable canning area were authorized by the United States Government to be converted to food dehydrating plants[xxxi]. One of these plants was John H. Dulany & Sons. Also an article from the Wall Street Journal said that packers like John H. Dulany & Son, of Fruitland Maryland have prepared pamphlets to aid the housewife in cooking frozen foods. So here you have a owner of a cannery, the president of the National Canners Association, pushing for the sale of frozen foods. The reason for this was because the businesses for frozen foods were booming. This was the major reason for the decline of canneries in Wicomico County. The killing blow is when the larger wealthier companies were able to afford the expensive machinery. It gave them an advantage over Wicomico County. They were able to harvest the crops and can it faster and more efficiently. Production year round as well as workers year round made it to difficult for Wicomico County to compete. Improvement in transportation made it possible for fresh vegetables to be distributed and sold year round. Farmers were then left to come up with the most logical plan they can think of when these factors where coming into play. They decided the most sensible thing was to change their crop base to a local industry with enormous success. Canners then would have to spend a tremendous amount of money to import the product from out of state in order to can it. Instead of spending a lot of money doing that it became more profitable to convert. All of these factors led to the decline of the canning industry in Wicomico County.

home