FRIMLEY ORCHARD.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 7, 16 January 1906, Page 3

FRIMLEY ORCHARD.

THE PEA. HARVEST. INTERESTING REVIEW. Mr Basil Jones, the manager of the Frimley canning factory at ‘ Hastings, spent, a number of years in America, and be was fully convinced that what Americaicould do New’ Zealand was able to copy with advantage. W e have been in the habit of importing a small quantity of packed green peas for the benefit of those who know the best from the inferior classes of food, and Mr Jones came to the conclusion that the industry could be established in this country and made to pay. Generally speaking, people have fought shy of the American imported pea, because they have not understood canned vegetables. Mr Jones is determined that they shall understand canned peas. To make quite sure that the market existed, he put down a small area in peas last year as an experiment, and packed three hundred cases. “They went like hot cakes, and we have been badgered for them ever since.” I That decided the question. This k,year close to the canning works, there were seven acres down in peas — Break-o’-day, Yorkshire Hero, and Stratagem. To-day the scene at Frimley is one of great animation. The schools, which closed in . December, have been drawn on for pickers, and in the paddock there are a few score of boys, • ranging from ten to fourteen years of age, picking the peas into baskets for the factory- In the field and the factory there are 135 boys and girls engaged in the different processes. They like the work, because it is easy, and brings them in a good deal of pocket-money. The boys’ Wages range from 6s up to 12s a week, and a bonus is awarded for all picked over a - certain quantity, the result being that many of the boys earn from 3s to 5s a week additional. A good tally for a picker for one day is 4001 b of peas. There is a hand-cart and scales, and there the baskets are weighed and the pickers are credited with their work. As the number of youngsters in Hastings is limited, Mr Jones has to look for his labour all over the country. He is continually advertising for girls in one part of the colony or another. They are put up in boardinghouses in Hastings for the season, and the company pays their fares back to their homes. The girls employed in the works earn from 10s to 25s a week, according to the class of work they do. All the youngsters are driven every morning from Hastings at the company’s expense, and back in the evening, and the girls are provided with a clean and airy dining room. Yet the supply of labor for the season is not nearly equal to the demand. The magnitude of the industry can best be gauged by the statement that from 2500 to 3000 tins of peas are being put up every day. Let us follow the whole process through. When the peas come in from the field they are taken to shelling sheds, where some fifty boys and girls are engaged, as a relief from picking in the field, in taking the peas out of the pod. This is perhaps the most monotonous work, because it takes a long time for the enthusiasm of youth to fill a decent-sized basket with shelled peas. Still, the process does come to an end, the shelled peas are hurried off to be graded, and the shells to feed the cows. Tbe former task is done by girls with the aid of sieves. All the smallest peas fall through the mesh, and infinite pains are directed to picking out the bad ones and rubbish. This process oyer, the peas are put into the blanching caldrons in boiling water, and taken out just soon enough to prevent them cooking. Then they are transferred to cold-water baths, in which they swim about for hours like fifty million small green frogs, until they are thoroughly cleansed of impurities. This is the last process in which the peas are visible, because they are packed direct from the bath into the cans, in which they are surrounded by a mild brine preservative, with a leaf of mint at the The filled cans go direct to the soldering machines, where six men are hard at work—one solders on the top discs, and another holds them down until the solder sets. There is, still, however, a vent in the top of the tin, because the cans have next to go, in trays of a dozen, into the exhausting-ma-chine. In this process the cans are submerged in hot water and the air thus ejected. They come out of the hot bath on a travelling apparatus, the vents in the top are ; immediately closed up. and now the tins are hermetically sealed. But this is not all. So far the peas are not cooked. Two big cy- > lindrical crates are loaded up, each holding 300 cans of peas, and put ' into the cooking retort. The temSrperature of the retort is a trade F .. secret, but at anyrate it is higher .> than has ever been experienced by ' anybody still living. The duration of the process is also a secret kept by the proprietors. The moment ; the retort is opened, hoses of cold water are turned on the fat,® bulging cans, which otherwise, in the

■ ■ • .3 ’ -. j sudden contact with the cold air, would scorch the peas, and explode right and left, it is. dnly a matter of a few minutes before the huge crate is swung into abath of cold water, but the hose must be kept going all the time to prevent the cans bursting. When, the cans have thoroughly cooled —a matter of au hour or so—they are ready for the labels. These are ’.-urnmed on by machinery, and the peas are at last ready for the piarket. If they are wanted cold they require no further cooking ; it hot, they can be prepared by submerging the whole can, or merely the contents, in hot water. A. can of peas contains almost as much as a peck of unshelled peas, and here they are on the market all the year round, shelled, washed, and cooked ready for the table at Is to Is 3d a can. From 7000 to 10,000 gallons of water are used every day in the canning process, and for washing and heating. As stated before, there are seven acres of peas at Frimley this year. From one and three-quarter acres Ihe yield was seven tons, and the manager estimates the total yield at thirty *tons. This will produce anything from 1000 to 1500 cases of two dozen cans each. Packing began in Christmas week, and already there are fifteen tons of peas in cans ready for, and to some extent actually on, the market. The original expectation for this year was only ten tons, but Mr Jones has bad such decisive encouragement in the industry that he increased the area considerably. The result of last year’s operations fully warranted the expansion.—Abridged from N.Z. Times.