importance in the health and
development of the country. Smith, in his "Commercial Geography," says
that "canning, more than any other invention since the introduction
of steam, has made possible the building up of towns and communities
beyond the bounds of varied production." A century or two ago, sailors
after a voyage of a year or two, almost always came home with scurvy.
Recently Nansen and his men drifted in the Arctic ice for years and
remained in good health, because of their supply of canned vegetables,
fruits, and meats.

The Government has not been slow in appreciating the need of canned
vegetables for the Army and Navy. It has commandeered about 25 per
cent of the canned beans, 12 per cent of the corn, and 18 per cent of
the tomatoes of the 1917 pack. Large amounts will be needed this year
also. Much of the 1918-19 supply for our troops in France is to be
canned in France, by arrangement with the French Government, thus
saving valuable shipping space.

Drying, or dehydrating, has long been known for beans, peas, and corn,
and for dates, prunes, figs, and raisins. But dried potatoes, beets,
carrots, and "soup mixtures" are more or less new. The drying, of
course, merely removes most of the water from the vegetable, and if
the process is properly carried out, soaking the vegetable in water
restores its original freshness.

The war, with the need for every ounce of food and the increasing
transportation difficulties, has brought the process into prominence.
The dehydrated products, if properly stored, seem to keep a long time.
Their saving in freight and shipping is plain, when it is remembered
that the fresh vegetables and fruits often contain over 90 per cent
water, and the dried from 8 per cent to 10 per cent. Ships are too
precious to be used for carrying unnecessary water. Our Government has
placed orders for several thousand tons of dehydrated potatoes for the
Army and may use other dried products as they can be obtained.

Canada has sent abroad within the past 3 years over 50 million
pounds of dehydrated vegetables, about two-thirds of which was the
vegetable-soup mixture and one-third dried sliced potatoes. When
reconstituted this would make about 400,000,000 pounds of vegetables.
Germany has been drying her vegetables and fruits far more than we. In
1917 she had over 2,000 commercial plants, and an elaborate system of
distributing all the available fresh material to the different plants
to avoid wa