Importance of the Industry.—The importance of the canning industry is not to be measured solely by its commercial extent. The principle of the conservation of food products by sterilization or pasteurization is of immense significance in the nutrition of man. It enables nourishing foods of a perishable character to be kept and transported to great distances and to be used in localities where fresh foods of similar kinds are otherwise unobtainable. Such preserved foods mean everything to pioneers, explorers, armies, and navies. The "winning of the west" in the United States has been marked by the débris of the rusty cans. The roads along which the pioneers who settled the great American desert marched since 1865 have been bordered with the discarded packages in which they carried their foods.
It is doubtless true that foods when they can be had fresh are to be preferred to those which have been sterilized. It is also true that many unsterilized foods from unsanitary environments are more dangerous in the fresh state than when they have been exposed to a high temperature. Taking into consideration all the circumstances in the case, it must be conceded that the process of sterilization, first practiced by Appert and afterward placed on a scientific basis by Pasteur, has proved of almost immeasurable advantage to mankind. Thus for this greater reason the character and quality of foods thus preserved should be wholly above suspicion, and no adulteration or sophistication of any kind should be practiced therewith. The manufacturer is quite as much interested as the consumer in placing the whole output of sterilized foods on a plane above suspicion.
