One Can of Prunes, Five Carloads of Orders
A journalist-turned-farmer with ten acres of unsellable strawberries builds a canning business in Olympia — and discovers that a pretty label sells middle America on Puget Sound fruit.
J. O. Scobey, journalist, instructor, politician and agriculturist, is making a remarkable success of his cannery project at Olympia. This year he will market eight cars of canned goods. He tells us that next year he will turn out 25 cars. He didn't have any idea the thing would grow so.
He got into it when, a couple of years ago, he found ten acres of strawberries on his hands with a very poor market; and decided to make a try of canning them. By good luck, he had employed on the farm a bright woman who knew something of putting up fruit — and so at it they went. They did the very best they could and put the stuff up in nice, attractive looking packages.
So many people who try their hand at that sort of thing fail because they don't pay enough attention to appearance of their goods. But this Scobey fruit was so nice it worked up one's appetite and sold right off. Wholesalers who took a few samples wanted more. Mr. Scobey's eyes were opened to the possibilities of the industry and last season considerably increased his output. It all sold like hot cakes.
This year, just to see what he could do, he sent a sample of canned fruit to an agent at Sioux City, Iowa. Just one can of prunes. On the strength of that one sample, one house there ordered five carloads of Scobey's canned fruits. Now what do you think of that? There's a town of only thirty or forty thousand and it takes five carloads! Mr. Scobey is convinced that the middle states are going to want about all the canned goods he can send them.
He says he is paying 3 cents a pound for strawberries and blackberries delivered at his cannery. He furnishes the boxes. That is a mighty good price, because there's nothing off for freight or loss by transit, or percentage to the commission men, or robbery by the same. He is also going in for peas, beans, pickles, etc.
Mr. Scobey is a man of ability, widely known throughout the state, and The Ranch is willing to bank on his opinion as to the future of this canning business. He's too long-headed to be chasing a will-o'-the-wisp. We think his modesty is responsible for a mistake, however, when he changed the name of his brand to Puget Sound Preserving Co. It should be Scobey Preserving Co. "Scobey's Jam." "Heinz' Beans." Let his name be emblazoned on every package.
“Just one can of prunes. On the strength of that one sample, one house there ordered five carloads of Scobey's canned fruits.”
Scobey's cannery is an early entry in what became a Puget Sound food-processing identity that still ships branded local goods to the rest of the country. Berry growing and small-farm canneries in Thurston County have largely given way to housing, but the bargaining point he brags about — paying growers a straight 3 cents a pound with no commission man taking a cut — is exactly the direct-to-market argument small farms make today.
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