Page:A History of the Pacific Northwest.djvu/319

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streams, the regulation of the fishing seasons, modes of fishing, etc., may perhaps result in stabilizing the industry on approximately its present basis.

Packing fruits and vegetables. The business of packing fruits and vegetables is steadily growing in importance throughout the Northwest, the region itself gaining distinction for both the quality and the output in these lines. A portion of the fruit, especially the prune crop and a portion of the peach crop, is dried or "evaporated "for marketing. But cherries, pears, small fruits, and a great variety of vegetables are mostly canned. The number of packing plants, or canneries, is large and their distribution such as to serve appreciable areas of country. Some of the most successful of these are conducted on the cooperative plan, the growers themselves owning the stock and managing the business through the agency of boards of directors and superintendents. Since the fruit cannery exists for the purpose of saving such portions of the various crops as cannot be marketed in a fresh state, the association which owns the cannery usually is primarily a fruit marketing organization. Nevertheless, the business necessarily increases relatively to the rapid increase which is taking place in the production of those kinds of fruit, like cherries and Loganberries, for which the demand in the fresh state bears only a small proportion to the total supply.

Mention has already been made of the manufacture of milk products, butter, cheese, and condensed milk.