Edith Daley Hunt Brothers article

From 'Cot to Can Is But Half An Hour

By Edith Daley

July 14, 1919 San Jose Evening News

Hunt Brothers Packing company, with their main offices in San Francisco, is one of the largest packing corporations in California. Beside the local plant, the Golden Gate Packing Company on North Fourth Street, they have five other canneries on the coast-Los Gatos, Haywards, Exeter, and two plants in Oregon. Julius Landsberger is the president of the company and E. L. Macabee manager of the Golden Gate plant.

Mr. Macabee, with more than 20 years' experience in the fruit canning industry, makes an interesting guide through the process from receiving the ripe apricots to their advent into the warehouse about 30 minutes later. Thirty minutes from box to can by the most modern methods possible!

At present the company is handling from 1500 to 2000 boxes of apricots a day, averaging about 42 pounds to the box. The season's pack of all fruits will aggregate somewhere between 150,000 and 175,000 cases. The number of cans in a case varies from 24 to 96 cans. The apricot pack is expected to run about three weeks more, with peaches overlapping.

"Our present output is not capacity," said Macabee this morning. "If we had more help the pack would be much larger. The labor situation is where we are apt to be up against it. In Haywards and Exeter there is no labor shortage, but competition here seems to be very keen.

"The whole labor problem resolves itself into a question of handling the help rather than the matter of pay", explained Macabee. "The matter of conditions regarding conveniences to facilitate the work and the arrangement of hours are great factors in keeping employees satisfied. We are centralized and rather fortunate in many ways. When it comes to the arrangement of hours our situation is especially good. With an excess of fruit in one place we can divert the supply to another plant." "Our aim," continued Mr. Macabee, "is to make things as comfortable as possible for our employees. Conveniences go far towards satisfying help and every convenience for performing labor is of mutual benefit to all concerned. Our chief difficulty lies in finding enough women employees, as they constitute at least 80 per cent of the 200 on our payroll."

As to the present run of fruit, the quality of the apricots is found to be good, but in quantity the crops is only medium. The apricots are not running evenly and the underlying cause has not been determined. Sour sap, dry rot, scale, and other things are mentioned as having contributed to the "spotted" run of the crop.

"One thing evident", said Mr. Macabee, "is the fact that the rancher must soon begin to put something back on the land instead of only taking everything off. Fertilization, spraying, pruning, thinning, cover crops must all be attended to. The land can't give forever without some help in production."

Mr Macabee cited one instance of a rancher being advised to thin his cots. This man replied to the effect that God had put all the green fruit on the trees and he "guessed God could take care of it." Macabee sees the time coming when in the fruit growing industry the Lord will help the rancher who does a little more to help himself.

Since Hunt Brothers took over the Golden Gate plant last year, they have installed almost entirely new machinery and many conveniences, including a cafeteria for employees. Other improvements are of methods and greater comfort and facility in working conditions.