A Little Journey Through a Sweet Potato Cannery
When the writer was a little boy he listened with rapt attention and eyes like saucers to the legend of the little chap who ate his way through a mountain of rice pudding. He ate some and then he ate some more and still some more until at last he had tunneled his way clean out on the other side of the mountain. A Shore sweet potato cannery tunnels its way clean through twelve hundred barrels of golden sweet potatoes in one day. In other words it takes the crop of a big farm to satisfy the ravenous appetite of the machinery of the average cannery for just one day. And it takes two hundred imported colored people to make the wheels go 'round and turn that huge pile of golden sweets into properly labeled canned goods.
What the canners do not know about canning sweet potatoes is not worth knowing. They took the sky pilot on a personally conducted tour through the large factory. Being a Baptist he did not mind the dampness of the atmosphere, for as one of the owners expressed it: "it's all done by steam and water." All of the copyrighted labels owned by the concerns have this statement printed in the center: "Packed in a scientific manner under strictly sanitary conditions." This is a true statement.
Get in line please and take a walk through the factory equipped with the latest machinery. After the farmer has gone through the laborious process of raising and harvesting his crop, the sweets are carried to the factory in box cars, trucks or carts and unloaded in bins. The factories are located in sidings of the Pennsylvania main line, between Cape Charles and New York. Upon arrival at the cannery, the potatoes are unloaded in bins and from now on the visitor begins to understand why it takes the never-ceasing flow of three wells to supply water and steam, for the first process is that of washing on a conveyer washer. From there the sweets are carried into the peeling machine which is a rotating affair for the removal of the peels. Let it be said that all canned fruits and vegetables with a skin such as tomatoes and peaches go through the same process before the final stages of canning. The process is entirely harmless and the product comes out of the peeling machine as clean as a new pin, for water and more water has washed off every particle of dirt at the end of the operation. On they go to the picking and sorting tables to remove all black sports and blemishes. Again the sweets are carried further, on and on and on, until they are placed into steel steam boxes or vats where they are partially cooked for fifteen minutes. The next step is packing. This is done by hand. The men who fill the cans (like all other employees) are compelled to keep themselves and their hands clean all the while and their gloves are constantly replaced by new ones. The partially cooked goods placed in tin cans filled to the brim are then hermetically sealed. In some ways this is the most important of all operations, for the least particle of air causes the complete loss of can and contents. The ingenious machine that presses and rolls the tops on the cans also registers and counts each can. A skilled white operator watches this machine like a woman watches every stitch in her sewing. Just one stitch dropped here will spoil all the work done previously. Still the shining cans travel on, getting nearer and nearer to the consumer. Into the process kettles they go, to be cooked a second time until they are done. A hydraulic crane lifts the finished product out to be labeled by machine and packed into cases. Canned sweet potatoes are shipped from coast to coast. In normal years the factories open season runs from the first week in September to within two weeks before Christmas and there is no trouble to dispose of the wares. In July 1926 the canneries sold up to capacity. "This year" said one of the owners "we are all in the same boat." Who is rocking the boat, no one seems to know, but the canners like the rest of the people on the Eastern Shore are passing through a period of depression. It is all a matter of education. You cannot cram religion down a man's throat. Once they learn to appreciate the delicious food values contained in our golden sweets, they are converts for life.
Are the employees contented, water and steam notwithstanding? Water and steam notwithstanding? Water unless he was put into a boiler with the pressure up to 359 lbs. or less. To all appearances the workers are a happy crowd. Ask Emma Gaskins of North Carolina if she is satisfied. Here is her answer "I have been here for seven years and come back every year with my family of eight because they is good to us." Not to be outdone Clayborn Williams of Richmond, Virginia, butted in: "Boss, I'se goin' to be here next year, 'cause they's so good to me." He too is a repeater. They will come back. While the workers are engaged in their daily round of duties the children play around the shacks and the air is filled with their laughter. On last Sunday afternoon a religious service was held by a visiting colored preacher.
And so the life of the Eastern Shore goes on, sowing and planting, cultivating and gathering, supplying the markets of the great cities. Whenever economic conditions are adjusted through universal co-operation, the "Shore" will blossom like a rose. In the meantime let us not be discouraged but do our best to usher in the day of prosperity which will come in due time. It cannot fail to come with such soil and such facilities and such sunshine and such highways of commerce. But it will only come, we repeat, through universal cooperation.