The Erie Canal tapped the agricultural potential of interior New York by encouraging settlers to move inland and establish farms and orchards, and at harvest time canal boats carried produce to markets and processing plants in canal towns. Canajoharie exemplified this economy: English immigrant James Arkell built a factory there to manufacture flour sacks for grain grown in local fields, while the nearby Beech-Nut Packing Company became a major regional employer by purchasing and processing hogs from local farmers. Such industries could generate considerable wealth that, when reinvested, elevated quality of life. Arkell’s own success, earned through a lifetime of hard work and business skill, enabled him to pursue art collecting, and the Canajoharie Library and Gallery and the Arkell Foundation now house his collection of almost 400 paintings, including 23 works by Winslow Homer and examples by Eakins, Sargent, Chase, Inness, Stuart, Hassam, Prendergast, Sloan, Hopper, and other important American artists.