Canning Gold: Northern New England's Sweet Corn Industry: A Historical Geography

by Paul B. Frederic

Canning Gold is a meticulously researched examination of how sweet corn canning helped shape the economy, landscape and people of rural Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont during the "corn shop century," 1860-1960's. Paul Frederic powerfully demonstrates the strong community bond essential for the industry's initial success. Interviews with farmers, factory owners and cannery workers who raised and packed the corn, combined with the written record, and Frederic's insight derived from growing up in the shadow of a corn shop, enrich the work and trace various threads linking local patterns to regional, national and global forces.

238 pages, Hardcover

First published February 28, 2002

Reviews

[Jennifer Wixson]

This little book is a fascinating (albeit somewhat dry) history of the sweet corn canning industry in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. The author, Paul Frederic, is Professor of Geography at the University of Maine at Farmington. More importantly, Frederic is also the product of a cornshop town, a hamlet or city whose existence was centered around a canning factory. Frederic brings not just academic expertise but also personal, hands-on experience in this once golden industry.

Canning Gold (University Press of America, 2002) covers more than a century of sweet corn, from the birth of the canning industry (1840-1879), through its heyday (1880-1930), to the industry's ultimate decline (1931-1968). Most interesting to me was Frederic's Chapter 6 People and Corn Shops in which the author shares cornshop memories from some of the 175 farmers, shop owners, superintendents and workers that he interviewed personally for the book. Some of the recollections from former cornshop workers, such as those of Frank Brown of New Sharon (below) are so compelling they made me wish Frederic would publish a second book just of sweet corn reflections!

The canneries were interesting places to work. Safety and quality control were not high priorities. There were a lot of open belts and gears and some workers received a few burns in the retort area but there were not many serious accidents. I once saw Perly Caswell drop an oil can into the corn vat where the corn and syrup are mixed and I asked him what he was going to do about it. Perly said, "Nothing, it will get mixed and only a little oil will be in each can." (p. 147)

There are enough tables and technical details in Canning Gold to satisfy a serious sweet corn geek. This book (an expansion of Frederic's Master's thesis) is a tempting taste of the way life used to be in rural Northern New England. However, a taste of Canning Gold: Northern New England's Sweet Corn Industry: A Historical Geography isn't quite enough for me, I want more! Hopefully, a 2nd helping is on the way.